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THE MODERN STUDENT'S LIBRARY 

AMERICAN DIVISION ^X^C 



^J7 

AMERICAN 
BALLADS AND SONGS 



THE MODERN 
STUDENT'S LIBRARY 

EACH VOLUME EDITED BY A LEADING 
AMERICAN AUTHORITY 

This series is composed of such works as 
are conspicuous in the province of literature 
for their enduring influence. Every volume 
is recognized as essential to a liberal edu- 
cation" and will tend to infuse a love for true 
literature and an appreciation of the quali- 
ties which cause it to endure. 

A descriptive list of the volumes published in 

this series appears in the last pages 

of this volume 

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 



THE MODERN STUDENTS LIBRARY 

AMERICAN DIVISION 



AMERICAN 
3ALLADS AND SONGS 



COLLECTED AND EDITED BY 

LOUISE POUND 

PROFESSOR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE 
UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA 



CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 

<rEW YORK CHICAGO BOSTON 



-yb^^^ 



u-^ 



T1 



Copyright, 1922, by 
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 



Printed in the United States of America 



©Ci.AGS3997 

NOV - 3 1922 




^yvts . /» 



TO 
H. M. BELDEN 



PREFACE 

•This anthology is intended to present to lovers of 
traditional song such selections as shall illustrate the 
main classes and types having currency in English- 
speaking North America. The interest attaching to 
them is partly literary, partly historical, and partly 
the interest of folk-lore. 

The choice of pieces has not been made on the ground 
of poetical quality, although this has been taken into 
account. The aim is rather to display the typical 
songs and ballads liked by the people and Hngering 
among them. The arrangement is neither chronologi- 
cal nor regional but is based upon type of material. 
Some of the texts are printed for the first time while 
others have appeared in various places. Occasionally 
variant texts have been introduced, to illustrate the 
multiple forms which may be assumed by a single 
ballad. In a few instances, where it seemed to have 
interest, a manuscript version is reproduced literatim. 
The provenience of the ballad included is entered in 
the notes, and — where this can be determined — the 
history of the ballad is sketched. But an effort has 
been made not to burden the notes with great detail 
or abundant comment, since the purpose of the an- 
thology is literary and illustrative rather than scholarly 
and critical. 

The collection is addressed to students of poetry and 
lovers of folk-song and to those who care for traditional 
pieces as social documents which reflect the life and 
traditions of those who preserve them. 

vii 



viii PREFACE 

The editor wishes to make grateful acknowledg- 
ment to Professors H. M. Belden, Lowry C. Wimberly, 
Edwin F. Piper, Reed Smith and others, who have 
assisted her in various ways, especially by sending her 
desirable texts. Thanks are due to the Macmillan 
PubUshing Company for permission to reprint four or 
five texts from the Cowboy Songs of John A. Lomax, 
to the H. W. Gray Company for permission to print 
a text from Miss Loraine Wymsm and Howard Brock- 
way's Lonesome Tunes, to Boosey and Company for 
two texts from Miss Josephine McGill's Folk Songs 
of the Kentucky Mountains , to the Princeton University 
Press for a text from W. Roy Mackenzie's The Quest of 
the Ballad, and to G. P. Putnam's Sons for the reprinting 
of several texts from Mrs. Campbell's and Cecil J. 
Sharp's English Folk Songs from the Southern Appa- 
lachians. The editor is indebted for the suggestion 
that she make an anthology of American folk-song to 
Mr. Carl Van Doren. 

Louise Pound. 

University of Nebraska. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH BALLADS IN AMERICA 

1. Johnny Randall . 3 

2. Lord Lovel . * . . 4 

3. Barbara Allen 7 

4. The Two Sisters 11 

5. The Jewish Lady 13 

6. The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin .... 16 

7. Children's Song . 18 

8. The Cruel Brother 21 

9. Edward 23 

10. The Lowlands Low 24 

11. Three Sailor Boys 26 

12. Lord Thomas 27 

13. The Hangman's Song 31 

14. Lord Bayham 33 

15. Little Matthy Groves 37 

16. Sweet William . 4Q 

17. The House Carpenter 43 

18. Two Little Boys 45 

19. The Cherry Tree Carol 47 

20. The False Knight 48 

OTHER IMPORTED BALLADS AND SONGS 

2L The Drowsy Sleeper . 51 

22. The Bamboo Briars 53 

23. The Boston Burglar 57 

24. The Butcher's Boy 60 

25. The Death of a Romish Lady 63 

26. Johnny and Betsy 66 

27. The Soldier 68 

28. The Farmer's Boy 69 

29. The Rich Young Farmer 71 

30. The Lover's Return 73 

31. 'The Prentice Boy 74 

32. The Constant Farmer's Son 76 

33. MoLLiE Bond 78 

34. My Father's Gray Mare 80 

35. Mary O' THE Wild Moor 81 

36. Father Grumble 82 

ix 



X CONTENTS 

PAGE 

37. GuyFawkes 84 

38. William Reilly's Courtship 86 

39. Jack Riley 89 

NATIVE BALLADS AND SONGS 

40. The Battle of Point Pleasant 93 

41. James Bird .93 

42. Springfield Mountain 97 

43. The Jealous Lover ......... 101 

44. Young Charlotte 103 

45. The Old Shawnee 108 

46. The Man That Wouldn't Hoe Corn . . . .110 

47. Wicked Polly Ill 

48. Johnny Sands 114 

49. Fuller and Warren 116 

50. Poor Coins 118 

51. PoorOmie 119 

52. Silver Dagger 121 

53. The Aged Indian 124 

54. Calomel 126 

55. The Creole Girl 127 

56. The Blue and the Gray 129 

57. The Gambler 130 

58. The Baggage Coach Ahead 131 

59. Casey Jones 133 

60. The Lady Elgin 134 

61. The Jamestown Flood 135 

62. The Milwaukee Fire 138 

63. The Fatal Wedding 140 

BALLADS OF CRIMINALS AND OUTLAWS 

64. Jesse James 145 

65. Charles Guiteau 146 

66. Sam Bass 149 

67. Jack Williams 152 

68. Young McFeb 153 

69. My Bonny Black Bess 155 

70. TURPIN AND THE LaWYER 157 

71. Jack Donahoo 158 

72. Captain KiDD 160 

WESTERN BALLADS AND SONGS 

73. The Texas Rangers 163 

74. The Little Old Sod Shanty on the Claim . .165 

75. Cowboy Song 166 

76. The Old Chisholm Trail 167 

77. The Dying Cowboy . 170 

78. O Bury Me Not On The Lone Prairie ... 171 

79. I Want to Be a Cowboy 173 



CONTENTS xi 

PAGE 

80. Whoopee Ti Yi Yo, Git Along Little Dogies . 174 

81. Cheyenne Boys 175 

82. Breaking in a Tenderfoot ...... 176 

83. Starving to Death on a Government Claim . . 178 

84. The Buffalo Skinners 181 

85. The Kinkaiders' Song ........ 184 

86. Dakota Land 185 

87. The Dreary Black Hills 185 

88. Joe Bowers 186 

89. In the Summer of Sixty . 189 

90. The Dying Californian 191 

MISCELLANEOUS BALLADS AND SONGS 

91. The Pretty Mohea 197 

92. Katie's Secret 198 

93. Mary and Willie 200 

94. Kitty Wells 202 

95. Pastoral Elegy 203 

96. The Courtship of Billy Grimes 205 

97. Fair Fanny Moore 206 

98. I Wish I Was Single Again 207 

99. I'll Not Marry At All 208 

100. Rosen the Bow 209 

101. EVALINA 211 

102. My Blue-Eyed Boy 212 

103. The Old Gray Mule 213 

104. I Will Tell You of a Fellow 214 

105. The Preacher's Legacy 216 

106. The Spanish Cabineer 218 

107. The Two Drummers 218 

DIALOGUE, NURSERY AND GAME SONGS 

108. The Quaker's Courtship 223 

109. Dutchman, Dutchman, Won't You Marry Me? 224 

110. What Will You Give Me If I Get Up? . . . 225 

111. Paper OF Pins 226 

112. The Milkmaid 228 

113. Billy Boy 231 

114. Poor Robin 232 

115. Babes in the Woods 233 

116. In Good Old Colony Times 234 

117. Let's Go to the Woods 235 

118. I Bought Me a Wife 236 

119. We'll All Go Down to Rowser's 237 

120. Sweet Fields of Violo 238 

INDEX 241 

NOTES 247 



INTRODUCTION 

I. The pieces in the following collection depend for 
their vitaUty upon oral, not upon written, transmission 
They have a subliterate existence, as apart from verse 
preserved in a form fixed by the printed page. They 
are to be distinguished from folk-songs like Yankee 
Doodle, John Brown, Hail Columbia, although these 
well-known songs belong even more properly to the 
*' people as a whole'' than do the songs in this anthology 
Those included here are known to singers in scattered 
places; they have circulation in certain regions, among 
certain groups; and some of them find very large 
currency indeed. But other regions of America and 
other classes of people do not know them at all. Patri- 
otic songs Uke America, and those named above, 
have nation-wide popularity. They are the property, 
not of the folk in certain sections and groups, but of 
the people of the United States. Their currency is 
not sporadic but universal. The real distinction, 
however, between folk-songs of the one type and of the 
other does not hinge upon their degree of ciu-rency 
among the people; it is something quite different 
Songs handed on by the printed page are static; 
traditional pieces, handed on orally from mouth to 
mouth, are in a state of flux. This is the most valid 
distinction which can be made for folk-song proper as 
differentiated from book or semi-literary verse or fromll 
popular song in general. Traditional songs, or genuine 
oral songs or folk-songs, have no existence fixed by 
print. They have no standard form but are contin- 
ually changing. 

xii 



m 



INTRODUCTION xiii 

Other characteristics of genuine folk-songs are that 
they have retained their vitality through a fair period of 
time and that all sense of their authorship and pro- 
venience has been lost by their singers. Criteria of 
origin for the genuineness of folk-song have no depend- 
ability, ^k. body of folk-song is increased by pieces of 
many origins; especially by the adaptation of old pieces, 
and by the absorption and metamorphosis into the 
stream of oral tradition of popular verse of many 
book or literary types. The only valid tests of genuine 
folk-song are not based on manner of origin but are 
the three just named. Genuine folk-songs are not 
static but are in a state of flux; they have been handed 
down through a fair period of time; and all sense of 
their authorship and origin has been lost. 

The songs included in the following volume are for 
the most part simple in type, and they have been gath- 
ered in many parts of the United States. They come 
from scattered sources and from the tongues of many 
kinds of singers. Both songs telling a story, or ballads 
proper, and purely lyrical pieces have been included. 
The dividing line is sometimes hard to draw; for ballads 
often lose their thread of story and become pure lyrics. 
The reverse process, namely, that songs in oral tradition 
gradually assume a narrative element and become 
ballads, appears rarely if at all. Inferior pieces are 
included liberally in the volume as well as those of 
better quality. Whatever types have appealed to 
the folk-consciousness sufficiently to win preservation 
for themselves have been held to deserve represen- 
tation. 

Some delimitations have been observed, however. 
Songs of the following types are well known to many 
singers who have never seen them in print, but they 
have not been given representation in these pages: 
patriotic pieces, like America, Yankee Doodle, or 



xiv INTRODUCTION 

national songs like John BrowUy A Hot Time; popular 
religious songs, like Onward Christian Soldiers; pseudo- 
negro songs, like Sewanee River^ My Old Kentucky 
Home; sentimental songs, like Juanita, Lorena, My 
Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean, For one thing, such 
songs are very famiHar. They are easily accessible in 
print and there are no fascinating mysteries connected 
with their history. But of more importance is the 
fact that they have not been dependent upon oral 
tradition for their perpetuation. Further, Httle repre- 
sentation is given in these pages to children's songs and 
game songs and nursery rhymes. These form a separ- 
ate subject; and so, for the most part, do negro and 
pseudo-negro songs. The most genuine American 
oral literature of all, that of the American Indian, 
assuredly forms a separate and wholly distinct subject. 
It needs treatment by itself. It bulks large and is part 
of the social history of America; but it has been without 
influence on the native traditional song in the English 
tongue. 

II. The oral versions of folk-song are practically 
innumerable. A book of the size of the present volume 
could be filled by the variant versions of half a dozen 
of the pieces included in it. But it should be borne 
in mind that the variations of the folk are instinctive 
and unconscious, not deliberate. There are countless 
ehiftings and omissions or additions in the mouths 
of varying singers, but they are unintentional. 
Alteration arises through slips of memory, local adap- 
tations (as the substitution of names), and through 
the omissions and the insertions of individual singers. 
Many are due to confusion with other ballads or to 
personal tastes or prejudices. Nor is it always the! 
fortunate changes which persist, though some scholars! 
seem to think this. Stupid or garrulous changes 



INTRODUCTION xv 

persist also. Crossings with other ballads may disorder 
a song until it remains merely a heap of confused mate- 
rials. Another song may glide onward from genera- 
tion to generation keeping the situation — generally a 
tragic situation — which is its soul; but transforming 
its phrases and stanzas. Sometimes very old narra- 
tives, despite their multiform transformations, have 
in most variants not yet lost their thread of story 
or become transformed beyond recognition. This 
is the case in the well-known ballads Lord Randal^ and 
The Two Sisters.^ 

On the whole, the influence of folk-transmission is a 
levelling influence. It conventionalizes according to 
its traditions. The total effect of its alterations, con- 
tributions, and curtailments is to bring homogeneity 
in style and manner of narration. Imported songs, 
once of totally different character, accommodate 
themselves to the regional modes and characteristics 
of their new home. Some effective incident or story, 
presented in a simple memorable way, commends 
itself to the folk-consciousness. Gradually it trans- 
forms itself in agreement with the tastes and traditions 
of the localities where it becomes domesticated, and 
sometimes it ends as something quite different from 
what it was when it began. 

It is usual to look upon ballads with some degree of 
indulgence as verse of a singularly *' artless '* kind. 
For that reason those who are in reaction from book 
verse find in it peculiar pleasure. The truth is, how- 
ever, that the antithesis should be drawn between 
poetry of the folk and poetry of culture, not poetry of 
"art." Art is not the same thing as culture and is not 
dependent upon it. The most primitive people may 
have its own kind of art. Ballads are often themselves 

1 Johnny Randall (No. 1) in this collection. 

2 No. 4. 



xvi INTRODUCTION 

relics of culture poetry, and they have their own art, 
traditions, and etiquette. These may be naive, but 
it would never occur to the singers to wish for innova- 
tions, or for something more elaborate. From the 
art, traditions, and etiquette that it knows, the folk 
never wavers. Departiu*e from them, within the limits 
of a period or place, is out of the question. It is always 
surprising that such variety may appear in the handhng 
of stock material, yet so little inventiveness be ex- 
hibited, or novelty in technique. 

III. Ballad singing was once a dignified means of 
entertaining a company. There was singing at social 
gatherings and at the games and dances of young 
folks, as well as on occasions of more impromptu 
character. Singing of this type is now much restricted, 
but it lingers in out-of-the-way places, as in the chimney 
nooks of farm houses, or by the stove in the cross-roads 
store. BaUad singing is not often to be heard from 
heggars and cripples, as once so typically in the Old 
World, nor on village greens; but casual knots of 
listeners may still be entertained by them in the cabin, 
in the cornfield, or by the creek. Occasionally they 
are heard in village parlors, or here and there in the 
drawing rooms of cities. Bits of picturesque old 
songs may sometimes be heard from children, who 
learned them from neighboring families or picked them 
up in the street. Ballads are most aHve in the moun- 
tainous regions of the Southeast and on Western 
randies. The more isolated the region, the better the 
chance for the survival of old songs. They may be 
sung to the fiddle or accordion, the mouth-harp, or 
occasionally to a cabinet organ. In the Cumberland 
mountains they are still sung to the banjo or to the 
'Mulcimore," a three-stringed instrument plucked 
with the fingers, descending from EHzabethan days. 



INTRODUCTION xvii 

It is often a difficult matter to secure songs from the 
singers with good voices and retentive memories 
who know them best. Every collector has had expe- 
rience with those whose modesty or perversity or fear 
of ridicule makes them unwilling to sing, for purposes 
of notation, the pieces in their repertory. 

Even in the older and more isolated regions the influx 
of modern music has replaced traditional pieces by 
those in contemporary vogue. And the lessening of 
iUiteracy has made remote communities less dependent 
for entertainment on what has been handed down. 
The prestige has diminished of singers with large 
repertories for whom, as for their audiences, the printed 
page means nothing. The broad-sheets containing 
older songs have been destroyed with the passing of 
the taste for them. In some communities, religious 
motives have lain behind the discarding of traditional 
pieces. They were thought to be "ungodly'' by their 
singers. As time goes on, the popularity of the vicar- 
ious music of the phonograph (with the possibilities 
of variety and novelty afforded by its records) and the 
introduction of other forms of amusement have lessened 
the amount of singing for entertainment. It is not 
to be expected that singing will die out. Probably 
there wUl always be circulation of older songs apart 
from the printed page, in outlying regions where 
growth and change come slowly; but traditional song 
will not play the same role as formerly, and the songs 
entering into oral cm-rency will be fewer and shorter 
lived. At the present time, the very multiplicity of 
new pieces lessens the chance that many will survive. 
When rural folk were thrown back almost solely upon 
song for diversion, it loomed larger and was more likely 
to retain vitality. 

As regards regional distribution, traditional songs of 
the character of those included in this volume are found 



xviii INTRODUCTION 



1 



most abundantly in New England and in the Southern 
Appalachian region, in the Southwest, and in the jj 
Middle West. At least these are the regions which 
have been canvassed with the best results by collectors. 
Canada also has yielded material. Nearly any kind of 
piece may be found in any region; but, on the whole, 
EngKsh and Scottish pieces of the romantic and legen- 
dary type have been best preserved in New England 
and in the South. As they have roamed westward 
they have lost their archaic flavor and many of their 
distinguishing touches. Pieces of all types which 
have reached the West, even when ultimately from the 
Old World, have lost their former associations, and 
are likely to sound as though they sprang up in the 
locaUty which preserves them. 

IV. The characters and manners of the American 
ballads betray their varying origins and the divergent 
social groups among which they have hngered. In 
the imported romantic and legendary ballads high- 
born personages sometimes retain their titles of nobility 
and their aristocratic adventures are not lost. More 
often, if such pieces have been long in the New 
World, the characters, locaUties, and stories are accom- 
modated to a New World setting. There is loss of 
romantic features and disappearance of many archaic 
literary touches in expression. Manners remain ele- 
mental. The preservation of the bare stories gives no 
chance for explanation or for subtleties. Evil stands 
out stark and goodness is equally unquaUfied. The 
''true love'' is simple and devoted, the parents stern 
or harsh; lovers are eternally attached, or faithless 
and murderous. Favorite characters in the imported 
pieces are knights and ladies, apprentices from London, 
lovers back from wars, highwaymen, criminals, and 
thieves. On the whole, the Western songs are those 



1 



INTRODUCTION xix 

which reflect most faithfully local conditions and 
characters. They tell of privations on government 
claims, of mining fevers, of cattle and "bosses'' and 
the adventures of cowboys, of shooting affrays, and 
of the confessions of criminals and rovers. The occa- 
sional theme of death for love, appearing in American 
ballads, reflects the survival in folk-hterature of what 
was once a widespread Uterary convention. In the 
"complaints'' of the troubadours and of their lyric 
successors, as the sonneteers, death from love was the 
inevitable prospect held out as in store for himself by the 
singer or the poet, if the object of his adoration did not 
prove kind. Verse of this type lasted into the sixteenth 
and seventeenth centuries. Dying for love is the 
theme of Barbara Allen's Cruelty j and it helps to fix the 
period from which this ballad must have emerged. 
But death from love as a central motive has passed 
from present-day song as it did long ago from book 
verse; though sentimental song in general plays as 
large a role as ever in popular Hteratiu*e. So has the 
murderous lover, who was once so conspicuous a 
figure, passed from contemporary verse, though he 
lingers in folk-song. There is little violence in song 
of the present day and there are fewer striking stories. 
Serious or tragic stories hardly play any part in the 
song of our own time. Nor is it probable that much 
popular contemporary song will win foothold or prove 
to be long-Uved. A favorite Hke Tipperary will not 
persist as did Willie Reillyy for example, which has a 
clear-cut and popular story and which gained its 
currency through coming into use as a campaign song. 
In general, themes and modes which have long been 
given up in the circles that knew them first remain 
alive in out-of-the-way places. Folk literature reflects 
the tastes in themes, the characters, manners, and 
stories of book or semi-literary verse of earlier genera- 



XX INTRODUCTION 

tions. A considerable section of it carries into the 
present the wreckage of the culture poetry of the past. 

V. The type of traditional songs first to claim the 
interest and attention of American lovers of balladry 
is imported, namely, English and Scottish popular 
ballads surviving in the United States. Something of 
Old World legend and romance is echoed in these 
immigrants from the British Isles which have found a 
home in a new land. Next in interest comes the group 
of American songs which is in strongest contrast, 
namely, frontier, pioneer, or cowboy pieces: songs of 
emigrants westward, of frontier conditions, and frontier 
characters, or of outlaws and criminals and rovers. 
Both varieties of song, the imported and the Western, 
are shrinking in bulk, the one with the fading of such 
song at its Old World sources, hence in its importation 
by immigrants, the other with the advance of popula- 
tion into Western outposts. A third important group 
of American traditional songs consists of love pieces of 
various kinds, which, whether inherited or indigenous, 
mostly conform to Old World patterns. Such are 
songs of the constant or the inconstant lover, of the 
reunion of parted lovers, of the murderous lover, or of 
lovers thwarted. The forsaken girl is the theme of 
many ballads and songs, and many pieces hinge upon 
the attitude of harsh parents. Such songs are f amihar 
and abundant on both sides of the Atlantic, and they 
need Uttle illustration. Beside songs from older and 
from later British sources there are many which show 
derivation from, or reference to, Ireland. There are 
some American pieces which retain supernatural 
elements, or make allusion to the supernatural ; but on 
the whole ballads of the supernatural play a shrunken 
role in the New World. 

A rough classification of the remaining types of 
American song would include a few songs of shipwreck 



INTRODUCTION xxi 

or of the lost at sea, some Indian or pseudo-Indian 
songs like The Pretty Mohea or The Aged IndiaUj many 
humorous songs or song-stories — often finding their 
chief hold upon the memory in some single Hne — like 
I Wish I was Single Again or Fll Not Marry at All^ 
songs of highwaymen like the British Dick Turpin, 
the Australian Jack Donahoo, the American Jesse 
James, or of the pirate Captain Kidd. There are also 
many death-bed confession pieces and somewhat ephem- 
eral songs of local murders, assassinations, and disas- 
ters. There are morahties and rehgious songs, tem- 
perance songs, pathetic songs of orphans and infants, 
songs of occupational pursuits like farm and ranch 
life and railway songs; and, lastly, traditional game 
and dance and nursery songs of American children. 
These last need a volume to themselves and have been 
given Uttle space in these pages. 

w The colonists who came to this country from England 
in the seventeenth century undoubtedly brought with 
them folk-songs of many types then popular in England. 
The ungodly songs censored by Cotton Mather were 
probably street songs, amatory or ribald, which he 
wished to see replaced by those of more pious character. 
Among them may have been some of the traditional 
English and Scottish ballads. It is quite possible that 
a few Old World ballads have been recovered in this 
country in an earUer form than that which survives in 
England. This may be true for Barbara Allen^s 
Cruelty, some texts of which — as pointed out by 
Professor C. Alphonso Smith^ — supply a hiatus in the 
narrative of British texts; and it may be true for The 
Maid Freed from the Gallows. The song of Betsy 
Brown, when Professor Firth's text^ is compared with 

1 "Ballads Surviving in the United States," The Musical Quarterly, 
January, 1916. 

2 An American Garland (1915), p. 69. 



xxii INTRODUCTION 

some of those found in this country, seems to have 
retained integrity better in its New World form. 
The Romish Lady^ dating from the era of Protestant 
martyrs, remains very close in its American derivatives 
to the broadside text of the time of Charles II, which 
is the earhest text of it preserved in England. It seems 
to play little or no role in later British traditional song 
but has found a good deal of currency on this side of 
the Atlantic. Since colonial times, folk-songs have 
been brought over by nearly every influx of newcomers. 
Immigrants from Ireland especially have brought over 
many songs. One ^'classic'' from this source, much 
adapted and disguised, is The Dying Cowboy. 

Nothing indigenous Hves from colonial times, so far 
as is known. Nor does anything Uve from the Revolu- 
tionary War and the days following, except Yankee 
Doodle^ which is sung to an Irish melody, and a few 
patriotic songs. These have an estabUshed popularity 
quite apart from the traditional and the oral. They 
have entered into traditional currency but are far from 
dependent on it. A still recognizable indigenous piece 
from the eighteenth century is Springfield Mountain^ 
which has had astonishing vitality in view of its 
inferior quality. From the War of 1812 remain a few 
fragments like the children's game song "We're 
Marching on to Old Quebec" and a song concerning 
the British ship, the Boxer. The Civil War left us 
John Brown, Tramp, Tramp, Tramp, Marching through 
Georgia, etc., but these, like America and Hail, Columbia, 
though they are usually called *^ American folk-songs," 
are not dependent for perpetuation upon oral tradition. 
Some battle and campaign songs, songs of special 
events, and elegiac pieces have survived from the Civil 
War. A number hvae been salvaged in Missouri by 
Professor H. M. Belden, and in the Cumberland Moim- 
tains by Professor H. G. Shearin. But songs of this 



n 



INTRODUCTION xxiii 

type have little interest and fade early. Many senti- 
mental songs from the middle decades of the nineteenth 
century are still current, notably Mrs. Norton's 
Juanita and H. D. L. Webster's Lorena. These are 
favorite songs among ranchmen, cowboys, and others, 
who are utterly unconscious of their provenience. 
But the great legacy for Americati song from the period 
of the Civil War is the legacy of negro song, plantation 
songs, and the pseudo-negro songs of composers like 
Stephen C. Foster, Henry C. Work, WiU S. Hays. 
Owing to their distinctive quaUties and peculiar appeal, 
a striking number of these pieces remain in popular 
currency, and they constitute an attractive portion of 
our song. Some of the comic negro songs, like Jim 
Crow J Zip Coon, Settin^ on a Rail, which are stiU aUve 
in traditional circulation, date from a period earKer 
than the Civil War; but all types of negro songs gained 
impetus during the war period and they owe to the 
feeUng and the interests which were bound up with it 
much of their diffusion and persistence. The Cuban 
War, later in the century, bequeathed There^ll Be a 
Hoi Time in the Old Town Tonight to folk-song, and the 
recent European war will probably leave its quota of 
favorites, though it is yet too early to predict which of 
them will find longest life. 

VI. traditional songs differ in their origin, history, 
and the impetus for their diffusion. To some pieces 
dates can be affixed and their development followed. 
Others come from an uncertain past. They seem to 
issue from nowhere in particular and to roam unac- 
countably from region to region. The chances of time 
have made it impossible to determine the year or the 
locality of their emergence, or to be certain of their 
original form. To most lovers of traditional verse, 
however, the source of a song seems a negUgible matter. 



xxiv INTRODUCTION 

The problem of its origin is of little interest except to 
the speciaUst. The fact of popular transmission and 
the circumstance that generations of singers have 
contributed to its modification, curtailment, or expan-" 
sion, lend it its attraction. It is always sm*prising to 
learn how soon the memory of the history and author- 
ship of popular songs is lost. 

For indigenous baHads, a few generalizations may 
safely be made. A percentage reflect real events; but 
in general there is Uttle connection with history, orl 
the connection is of sHght importance. A few had" 
their genesis in local happenings chronicled by local 
poets. Some, like the ballads of the Meeks mm'der 
examined by Professor H. M. Belden,Vhave found but 
Httle diffusion. Others, Hke Springfield Mountain, 
wandered far from their starting point. Young Char- 
lotte seems to have been carried widely over the United 
States by the peregrinations of its author. As a general 
thing, local ballads, made by some local bard, or im- 
provised by individual contributors, are the most 
ephemeral of all ballads. They rarely survive except 
in chance fragments.. A considerable proportion of 
the pieces cm-rent in American folk-song were floated 
by singers in travehng troupes, especially by the 
old-time "entertainers'' and minstrel troupes of various 
types; or they were carried over the country, in later 
days, through the agency of plays into which they were 
introduced. Since Ehzabethan times this has been a 
notable source of impetus. Fletcher's Knight of the 
Burning Pestle mentions many popular songs of the 
day. One is Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard, 
which is still ahve in this country, whether or not it is 
in England, and another is The Romish Lady^ which is 
also yet alive. The early popularity in London circles of 

i"A Study in Contemporary Balladry,'* The Mid-West Quarterly^ 
vol. I, pp. 162-172. 



INTRODUCTION xxv 

other songs now part of traditional folk-song is attested 
by their incorporation into or mention in other dramas. 
Certainly many American songs owe their circulation 
to their introduction into plays (Uke After the Ball 
which was taken about the country in Hojrt's farce 
A Trip to Chinatown), or to their being taken through 
many states by bands of wandering singers. Many 
songs gained wide popularity through the agency of 
colored minstrel troupes. Johnny Sands was floated 
by itinerant bands Uke the Continental Vocalists and 
the Hutchinson Family, in the earlier half of the 
nineteenth century. In the Baggage Coach Ahead got 
its currency by being thrown on a curtain, with colored 
slides, in vaude\dlle programs. 

There were, however, many other modes of diffusion 
and helps to vitality. Important were the "popular 
songsters,^' or small song books of various types, and 
the "broadsides,'' in sheet music form or containing 
the words alone, which were sold by itinerant vendors 
of patent medicine, or peddlers, or at booths estabHshed 
at fairs, or in the wake of circuses or of wandering 
entertainers. Many songs learned from singers in 
childhood at the schoolhouse Knger in the memory 
when those of newer acquisition have been forgotten. 
Popular pieces of a religious or moralizing nature 
gained circulation at the camp meetings of revivalists, 
and many songs found their impetus at temperance 
gatherings. Western songs were sometimes handed 
on or launched at old settlers' picnics, or were sung at 
social gatherings at farms or ranches, or at the "play 
parties" and dances of young people. One of the most 
important sources of preservation and one which has 
afforded to collectors many of their best texts is the 
manuscript book, handed on from generation to genera- 
tion, into which songs have been transcribed from oral 
and other sources. Some newspapers have conducted 



xxvi INTRODUCTION 



.1 



columns in which ''old favorites'' are reprinted for 
readers, or texts are called for by those who have 
forgotten them, or the search is stimulated for the 
complete texts of songs recalled in fragments. Many 1 1 
scrap-books have been made and handed on into which '' 
clippings from newspapers of old favorites have been 
pasted. Most of these sources of circulation are now 
declining, and some of them are no longer existent. 
For that matter, the handing on of songs by oral tradi- 
tion has become more and more curtailed. It is far 
from extinct, and it is not to be expected that it will 
ever completely die out from the human race; but with 
the spread of Hteracy, the increasing circulation of 
printed matter, the introduction of phonographs, and 
the removal of old-time isolation, through the agency 
of railroads, automobiles, and (in these days) of air- 
planes, the singing of traditional songs plays a lessened 
role. 

American folk-song as a whole has been imported 
from the Old World. This is becoming less true, but , 
it still holds. Folk-songs are still brought across the j, 
Atlantic by newcomers; and a large percentage of the 
most striking and persistent pieces current in America 
are derived from Old World originals, EngHsh, Scottish, [ 
or Irish. Many survive which were brought over long 
ago, or they enter in new form with some shipload of | 
immigrants. Songs recently imported still win foot-* 
hold and then wander from community to commimity, ' 

VII. Sometimes collectors of ballads and folk-songs 
preserve the music to which the texts are sung, but more 
often the words only are recorded. The salvage of 
melodies is desirable; for folk-music, Uke folk-literature, 
has its interest and its distinctive ways. Generally 
the melody and the words are so associated in the minds 
of the singers that the one cannot be recalled without 



INTRODUCTION xxvii 

the other. The song is the hfe of the words; the two 
are not to be separated. Nevertheless the recording 
of the tune along with the words is less important for 
throwing light on the history of the song than might 
be thought. The words have more stability than the 
music. A piece retains its identity by its story, or its 
situations, or its characters; not by its melody. For 
example, innumerable varying airs have been recorded 
for Barbara Allen , Lord Randal, The Dying Cowboy y 
Babes in the Woods. It is often difficult or impossible 
to determine which melody is nearest to the original. 
Many texts of many kinds may be sung to one air, 
and many different airs may be employed for one text. 
There is even greater fluctuation on the musical than 
on the textual side of folk-song. Indeed, here is a 
prolific source of crossings in ballads, of amalgamations, 
and of exchange of refrains. Pieces sung to a familiar 
air may assume some of the associations of that air. 
Possibly some of the older Enghsh ballads have been 
preserved to us in comparative integrity because they 
were chanted or recited rather than sung. Professor 
Child suggests for some of the old English ballads that 
they sound as though they were recited, and The 
Complaint of Scotland (1549) testifies to the recital 
rather than the singing of certain Robin Hood pieces. 
But it is through singing that folk-songs are handed 
down. In America at least, pieces do not seem to be 
continued in tradition through recital or chanting. 
They persist because they are sung. It is the music, 
however it fluctuate, which keeps them alive. 

VIII. The ballads of Old World collectors seem 
often to have been touched by skilful hands. Sir 
Walter Scott rests under the suspicion of having 
enhanced the poetical quality and vigor of many pieces, 
and so do other collectors, from Bishop Percy onward. 
Nothing of the kind has been true in America. The 



xx\aii INTRODUCTION 



songs gathered by native collectors have been left as 
they were and American texts can be accepted without 
qualification. Taken as a whole, they testify that, 
though ballads may both gain and lose by transmission, 
the latter is the more usual process. It is a mistake 
to affirm that traditional preservation ensures improve- 
ment, though it may help for a time. It shortens a 
long or diffuse piece, drops out non-essentials, and 
preserves dramatic scenes, bits of dialogue, and the 
situation which is the soul of the story. SaKent pas- 
sages come to stand out, old introductions are lost, 
while the critical features of the narrative, the dialogue 
and the turning points, remain. The ^'nobler wild- 
flower sort of poetry '^ may have become such by virtue 
of the sifting hands through which it has passed, or by 
virtue of the selective processes of the folk-memory. 
But in the majority of cases a folk-song deteriorates 
in oral tradition, developing incompleteness, incoher- 
ence, and sometimes garrulous protraction. An in- 
stance in point is the ballad of Springfield Mountain 
which originated in the eighteenth century and has 
survived only in oral form. The process of folk- 
transmission has not evolved it into a good ballad or 
improved it. It had Uttle poetical merit at the begin- 
ning and its twentieth century derivatives have not 
remedied the weaknesses of the original. Another 
instance is the fine old song of Barbara Allen^s Cruelty 
which emerges from the seventeenth century. In 
many later forms it has wholly lost its dignity and 
appeal. Even those songs which have been improved 
by the processes of folk-transmission in the end fall 
themselves into decay. 

As to styKstic characteristics, some American songs 
are rough, frank, spirited, others picturesque and pathe- 
tic. The diction tends to be rugged, the meter crude, 
the tone unsophisticated. Though sometimes highly 






INTRODUCTION xxix 

colored by emotion, the language of American oral 
song is plain. Finery and elegance are lost if they were 
ever present. The folk-memory is intent on story and 
situation and it cares little for coherence or ornament. 
The conventional epithets of the Old World ballads do 
not appear in American ballads and, except when in- 
herited, as in Johnny Randall, or Edward, or The 
Cruel Brother, the legacy motive and the sequence 
mannerism of the English and Scottish ballads are 
wanting. Common, however, is the "Come all ye'* 
formula of invitation at the opening. This is charac- 
teristic of later British and Irish ballads, and has been 
domesticated in America from immigrant song 

IX. Conscious interest in the traditional balladry 
of the people arose in England in the eighteenth cen- 
tury. In the latter half of that century the effort to 
recover and make public pieces of especial interest 
was made by many collectors. The impulse took on 
added momentum in the nineteenth century and has 
maintained itself, gaining rather than losing, into 
the twentieth. American enthusiasm for baUads came 
a hundred years later. The latter haK of the nine- 
teenth century brought the first important attempts 
to gather and preserve songs in traditional currency. 
The names of historic collectors for America are those 
of Professor Francis James Child (1825-1896) of Har- 
vard, whose interest in English and Scottish ballads 
led to his preservation of many such pieces in their 
New World form, William Wells Newell (1839-1907), a 
founder of the American Folk-Lore Society and a 
collector of the games and songs of American children, 
and Professor G. L. Kittredge, upon whom fell the 
mantle of Professor Child at Harvard. Professor 
Kittredge has interested himself in all kinds of American 
traditional pieces, not only in English and Scottish 



XXX INTRODUCTION 

ballads in America; and he has done much to stimulate 
collection and study in many parts of the country. 
Something in the way of preservation has also been 
contributed by historians, though the pieces having 
chief interest for historians are, from the nature of 
things, transient. They are likely to be of the political or 
chronicle type, rather than of general human interest. 

On the whole, the wish to gather and preserve popular 
song may be viewed as accompanying or growing out 
of the trend toward democracy. It parallels for 
literary history the change taking place in the history 
of society in general. Since the eighteenth century 
the attention of pohtical thinkers has descended through 
the various strata of society until the lowest strata are 
now in the foreground of interest. It has often been 
pointed out that contemporary historians endeavor to 
chronicle the common man as well as the hero. The 
lowly may now serve as central characters in fiction 
and drama which were once concerned solely with pa- 
tricians. Similarly, the interest of literary historians 
and of students and readers has extended downward 
from the masterpiece till it embraces the humble and 
unrecorded Hterature of the folk. 

Texts of oral hterature in America have been avail- 
able hitherto mostly in scattered places. Perhaps 
the widest ranging and completest available repository 
of such songs and ballads is Mrs. CampbelFs and Cecil 
J. Sharp's English Folk Songs from the Southern Ap- 
palachians (1917). Tunes as well as texts are entered 
in this collection, and the same is true of the smaller 
Folk Songs of the Kentucky Mountains (1917) of 
Josephine McGill, and Lonesome Tunes by Loraine 
Wyman and Howard Brockway (1916). Western 
cowboy songs, both oral verse and book verse, were 
collected and published in two volumes by John A. 
Lomax, Cowboy Songs (1914) and Songs of the Cow 



INTRODUCTION xxxi 

Camp and the Cattle Trail (1919). N. Howard Thorp's 
Songs of the Cowboys, with an introduction by Alice 
Corbin Henderson, appeared in 1921. W. Roy- 
Mackenzie has printed a number of texts salvaged in 
Nova Scotia in The Quest of the Ballad (1919). Many 
interesting texts have been published in the Journal 
of American Folk-Lore by such scholars as G. L. 
Kittredge, H. M. Belden, PhiUips Barry, E. C. Perrow, 
A. H. Tolman, and Arthur Beatty. The late Professor 
H. G Shearin listed and analyzed the folk-songs of 
the Cumberland region in Kentucky; Philhps Barry 
has done the same thing for the North Atlantic states, 
and H. M. Belden for Missouri. Professor C. Alphonso 
Smith, as archivist of the Virginia Folk-Lore Society, 
has done much to preserve the oral verse of Virginia, 
and Professor John H. Cox has collected the traditional 
verse of West Virginia. The game and nursery songs 
of American children constitute a part of oral literature 
in America. The pioneer collector and editor of them 
is W. W. Newell, whose Games and Songs of American 
Children (1883) is a credit to American scholarship. 
Of late years liis work has been supplemented by the 
studies of others in various volumes of The Journal of 
American Folk-Lore. A few ballad texts have been 
preserved in articles in popular periodicals. The 
general subject of balladry in America has been treated 
in the present writer's chapter on ''Oral Literature in 
America,'' published in the Cambridge History of 
American Literature, Volimie IV (1921), and in several 
sections of her Poetic Origins and the Ballad (1921). 
Professor H. M. Belden has written of balladry in 
America and of the relation of balladry to folk-lore in 
inaugural addresses as president of the American 
Folk-Lore Society. And Mr. PhiUips Barry has 
written upon many special subjects connected with 
American folk-song in the same periodical {The Journal 



xxxii INTRODUCTION 

0/ American Folk-Lore) which contains the addresses 
of Professor Belden. 

X. Among the most characteristically American of 
om* folk-songs are slave-songs, and plantation songs, 
and negro or pseude-negro songs, comic or pathetic. 
These constitute a separate subject and they deserve 
treatment in a separate anthology of Afro-American 
song. Besides these, as characteristically American 
in flavor, should come Western and frontier pieces, 
as Starving to Death on a Government Claim^ or The 
Dreary Black Hills, and American humorous songs, 
Hke Joe Bowers or Johnny Sands. Apart from these 
two groups, most of our American traditional songs 
have upon them the stamp of the Old World and fall 
into Old World patterns. Prevaihngly they are tragic 
pieces. Their *' strong situations'' keep them ahve 
and they derive from or are parallel to British songs. 
Usually they have exaggerated plots and often they 
have exaggerated morals. There are confessions of 
murder, hke Young McFee, and there are many confes- 
sion and death-bed pieces in general. The Butcher^s 
Boy is one of the most widely circulated oral ballads in 
the language. It is known from Nova Scotia to Texas. 
The Boston Burglar has equally wide currency. Both 
are serious pieces and both are of British adaptation. 
The miu*der ballad is a type which still springs up 
occasionally, hke the ballads of the Meeks murder in 
Missouri chronicled by Professor H. M. Belden. 
Professor W. R. Mackenzie has recorded some murder 
ballads from Nova Scotia, and Professor H. G. Shearin 
found a nmnber in the Cumberland moimtains. But, 
like all ballads which chronicle local events, this type 
is hkely to be short-Uved. In general the gloomy 
themes, especially the songs of domestic crime, which 
pleased earher centuries did not give the same pleasure 



INTRODUCTION xxxiii 

in the late nineteenth century, and they do not please 
the earlier twentieth centm*y. The sentimental songs 
of the present do not show the elegiac or ^^ complaint'' 
turn of the older songs but tend to be himiorous or 
happier. On the whole, the emotional pitch of Ameri- 
can pieces is low, especially when they are placed in 
comparison with their Eiu^opean analogues. This is true 
both for earher pieces and for songs of the present day. 
It is of interest to trace the waves of popularity 
which arise and fade for types of popular song as they 
do for verse which is to be read. The types of leading 
interest to be noted for the nineteenth century include 
the slave songs, comic songs, and general negro songs 
which were popularized by troupes of negro singers 
and by the old-time "minstrel" troupes of whites. 
There was a wave of temperance songs of which a few 
pieces remain, Uke DonH Go out Tonight, Dear Father, 
The Drunkard^ s Lone Child, The Teetotallers are Coming. 
Ballads and songs of the drunkard, and especially of 
the drunkard's child, once played a considerable r61e. 
There were many campaign and camp songs of the 
Civil War period, but they have nearly disappeared. 
Still rememberable is the rise to popularity of ''coon" 
songs, one of which, Ta-ra-ra-ra boom de ay, found its 
way into European circulation. " Coon " songs proved, 
however, so sHght in text and so indefinite in structure 
that they retained Kttle foothold in traditional song. 
Nor are the succeeding ''rag-time" songs or "jazz" 
songs Hkely to leave much of a legacy. There is Uttle 
in their texts which is distinctive enough to lodge in the 
a memory. No clear-cut story holds them together, and 
the taste to which they appeal is transitory. Some 
contribution to folk-tradition should be made by the 
songs which were universalized in the days of the 
World War; but it is yet too early to predict which, if 
any of them, will endure. A characteristic which 



xxxiv INTRODUCTION 

distinguishes the serious songs of our own day, in 
contrast with those popular eariier, is their ^'glad'* 
note, their optimistic endeavor to look on the bright 
side of things; this is evidenced by such songs as 
Smile, SmiUj Smile, or Pack up Your Troubles in Your 
Old Kit Bag. There was a stronger military note in 
the songs emerging from earher American wars; and 
the zest for fighting which was characteristic of the 
songs of mediaeval wars is somewhat conspicuously 
wanting in the songs popularized by the war which 
has passed. 

When set over against Old- World texts brought 
together by collectors, the American texts of the same 
songs seem noticeable for their brevity. Possibly the 
same curtailment might be apparent for British texts 
of the present, when compared with their earlier coun- 
terparts; but it is certain that existing American 
variants show marked abridgment alongside the 
versions current across the Atlantic. Even when an 
immigrant piece has not been shortened as to the 
number of its stanzas or lines, there is likely to be loss 
in the details of narration. That there is no shrinkage 
in length may be the result merely of garrulous pro- 
traction or repetition, arising as essential features are 
lost. The American tendency toward brevity may 
be viewed as the result of the decaying influence of 
time and migration; or it may be looked upon as part 
of the general trend toward shortening seen in the 
drama, the essay, and prose fiction, as well as in verse 
narratives. Neither twentieth centiH*y singers nor 
twentieth century audiences have the patience and 
the sustained interest which were characteristic of 
days less hurried and eager for variety. When every- 
thing else has been shortened or is in the process of 
shortening, it should not be surprising that folk-songs 
have shortened too. 



INTRODUCTION xxxv 

XI. The interest in floating pieces that linger from 
generation to generation in popular song is partly 
literary and partly sociological. They have no salient 
historic value but they convey clear impressions of a 
state of society. On the surface there is difference for 
different generations and for different regions, in song 
modes, types of plots, types of characters, and social 
views. Below the surface appears the same round of 
simpler feeUngs, jealousies, ambitions, disappointments, 
characteristic of human nature in all periods. Impres- 
sive stories or situations are set forth in simple types of 
verse. Occasionally the interest of the student of 
literature Ues in flashes of poetic value or suggestions 
of wistful beauty. He comes upon passages of unex- 
pected charm. More often it is the unconsciousness 
and frankness of the narrative, the total suppression of 
comment and of superfluous matter, that appeals to 
the reader, by virtue of the contrast which it affords 
with book verse. This frank unconscious note which 
is the chief source of their appeal belongs par excellence 
to the middle period of a ballad's history. Sometimes 
the earhest texts are complex, then simplification ap- 
pears, dramatic situations are brought into the fore- 
ground, superfluous details are lopped off, and Unks 
drop from sight. Only the simpler and more impressive 
stanzas are preserved. Some instances in point are 
Jemmy and Nancy {Pretty Nancy of Yarmouth) and 
The Babes in the Wood. The original text of Pretty 
Nancy, with its references to ''The Barbados Lady,'' 
is semi-literary and has as many as 288 lines. Its 
derivative from the Appalachian region telKng of 
''the perbadus lady''^ is on its way toward incoherent 
trash. Bishop Percy's text of The Babes in the Wood 



1 Campbell and Sharp, English Folk Songs from the Southern Ap- 
palachians, No. 53. 



xxxvi INTRODUCTION 

has twenty-two stanzas and shows completeness and 
Uterary finish. Most ciurent versions of this song 
have no more than three or f om* stanzas. When ballads 
are in their decadence they sink to the fragmentary, 
vulgarized, garrulous, or inconsequent, or they die 
away in burlesque. The appeal has gone and the text 
is of interest chiefly as exhibiting the last stage of a 
process. But the frank imconscious note of popular 
song is not to be thought of as the especial property of 
medisdVBX peasant throngs or minstrels. It is recurrent 
for traditional songs of all ages and all regions. It may 
be found in many of the songs in the following pages as 
well as in the older ballads of England and Scotland. 



ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH 

BALLADS 

IN AMERICA 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 3 

1 

(A) JOHNNY RANDALL 

"Where was you last night, Johnny Randall, my son? 
Where was you last night, my heart's loving one?" 
"A-fishing, a-fowHng; mother, make my bed soon, 
For I'm sick at my heart, and I fain would lie down." 

''What had you for breakfast, my own pretty boy? 
What had you for breakfast, my heart's loving joy?" 
"Fresh trout and slow poison; mother, make my bed 

soon. 
For I'm sick at my heart, and I fain would lie down." 

"What will you will your brother, my own pretty boy? 
What will you will your brother, my heart's loving 

joy?" 
"My horse and my saddle; mother, make my bed soon. 
For I'm sick at my heart, and I fain would lie down 



ff 



"What will you will your sister, my own pretty boy? 
What will you will your sister, my heart's loving joy?" 
"My watch and my fiddle, mother make my bed soon, 
For I'm sick at my heart, and I fain would lie down." 

"What will you will your mother, my own pretty boy, 
What will you will your mother, my heart's loving 

joy?" 
"A twisted hemp rope, for to hang her up high; 
Mother, make my bed easy till I lie down and die." 



4 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 
(B) JIMMY RANDOLPH 

"What you will to your father, Jimmy Randolph my 

son? 
What you will to your father, my oldest, dearest 

one?" 
"My horses, my buggies, mother make my bed soon, 
For I am sick-hearted, and I want to he down." 

"What you will to your brothers, Jimmy Randolph my 

son? 
What you will to your brothers, my oldest dearest one?" 
"My mules and my waggons, mother make my bed 

soon. 
For I am sick-hearted, and I want to he down. 



7} 



"What you will to your sisters, Jimmy Randolph my 

son. 
What you will to your sisters, my oldest dearest one?" 
"My gold and my silver, mother make my bed soon, 
For I am sick-hearted and I want to lie down." 

2 

(A) LORDLOVEL 

Lord Lovel was standing at his castle gate, 

A-combing his milk-white steed. 
When up stepped Lady Nancy Belle, 

A-wishing her lover good speed, speed, speed, 

A-wishing her lover good speed. 



(( 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

"Where are you going, Lord Lovel?'' she said, 
"Where are you going?'' said she. 
I'm going, my love," Lord Lovel repUed. 
"New countries for to see, see, see, 
New countries for to see." 



Lord Lovel was gone just a year and a day, 

New countries for to see, 
When languishing thoughts came over his mind. 

Lady Nancy he must go see, see, see. 

Lady Nancy he must go see. 

He mounted upon his milk-white steed. 

And rode to far London town. 
And there he heard St. Patrick's bells. 

And the people came momning, around, round, 
round. 

And the people came mourning around. 

"O who hath died?" Lord Lovel said, 

"O who hath died?" said he. 
"A lady hath died," a woman repKed, 

"And they call her Lady Nancy, -cy, -cy, 

And they call her Lady Nancy." 

He ordered her grave to be opened wide, 

Her shroud to be folded down. 
And there he kissed her pale cold cheeks 

Till the tears came trinkUng down, down, down. 

Till the tears came trinkling down. 



6 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

Lady Nancy she died on Good Friday, 
Lord Lovel he died on the morrow; 

Lady Nancy she died for pure true love, 
Lord Lovel he died for sorrow. 



(B) LORD LOVER 

where are you going, Lord Lover,'' said she, 
"O where are you going?" said she. 

1 am going, my Lady Nancy Bell, 
Foreign countries for to see." 



tt 



K 



How long will you be gone. Lord Lover?" said she, 
"How long will you be gone?" said she. 
"A year or two or, the fartherest, three, 
Then return to my Lady Nancy." 

He had not been gone but a year and a day. 

Foreign countries for to see. 
Till wondering thoughts came over him, 

"Lady Nancy Bell I must go see." 

He rode and he rode on his mule quite stay. 

Till he come to London town. 
And there he heard St. Patrick's bells 

And the people all morning around. 

"O what is the matter?" Lord Lover, said he, 
"0 what is the matter?" said he. 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 7 

"Lord, a lady is dead," an old lady said, 
"And her name was Lady Nancy." 

He ordered her grave to be opened wide, 

Her shroud to be torn down, 
And there he kissed her cold pale lips. 

Till the tears came trinkUng down. 

Lady Nancy was buried in the cold church ground. 

Lord Lover was buried close by her; 
And out of her bosom there grew a rose, 

And out of Lord Lover's a briar. 

They grew and they grew to the church steeple high, 

Till they could grow no higher. 
And there they tied in a true lover's knot 

For all true lovers to admire. 



(A) BARBERY ALLEN 

It was early in the month of May, 
The rosebuds they were swelling; 

Little Jimmy Grooves on his deathbed lay 
For the love of Barbery Allen. 

He sent his servant into the town 
Where she'd been lately dwelUng, 



8 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

Saying, "Bring to me those beautiful cheeks, 
If her name be Barbery Allen." 

So he arose and he left the room 
Where she'd been lately dwelling, 

Saying, " YouVe been called upon this eve, 
If your name be Barbery AUen." 

Then she arose and went to the room 

Where Jimmy was a-lying. 
And these were the words she seemed to say: 

"Young man, I think you're dying." 

"That's so, that's so, my love," said he, 

"I'm in a low condition; 
One kiss from you would comfort me 

If your name be Barbery Allen." 

"One kiss from me you'll never receive 

Although you are a-dying"; 
And every tongue did seem to say 

"Hard-hearted Barbery AUen." 

"O don't you remember a long time ago, 

Way down in yonder tavern, 
Where you drank your health to the ladies all. 

But you sUghted Barbery Allen?" 

"Yes, I remember a long time ago. 
Way down in yonder tavern. 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 



Where I drank my health to the ladies all; 
But my love was to Barbery AUenJ 



7} 



She had not gone more than haK a mile 
Till she saw the corpse a-coming; 

Saying, ''Lay those corpse before my eyes 
That I may look upon them/' 

The more she looked the more she wept, 

Till she burst out a-crying; 
And then she kissed those tear cold cheeks 

That she refused when dying. 

" O mamma, mamma, go make my bed, 

Go make it long and narrow; 
Little Jimmy Grooves has died of love, 

And I will die of sorrow. 

"O mamma, mamma, go make my bed. 

Go make it long and narrow; 
Little Jimmy Grooves has died today. 

And I will die tomorrow." 

Little Jimmy was buried in the new churchyard 

And Barbery close beside him, 
And out of his grave grew a red rose. 

And out of hers a briar. 

They grew and grew to the old church top 
Till they both could grow no higher. 

And they both were tied in a true-lover's knot, 
The red rose and the briar. 



10 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 
(B) BARBARA ALLEN 

Honor, Honor, is the town 

In which three maids were dwelling. 

There is only one I call my own, 
Her name is Barbara Allen. 

He sent his servant to her town 
And he sent him to her dwelling. 

''My master, O he's very sick 
For the love of Barbara Allen." 

Slowly, slowly she rose up, 
And to his bedside was going. 

She pulled the curtains to aside 
And said ''Young man, you're a-dying. 



7:> 



He stretched out his pale white hand, 

Expecting to touch hers. 
She hopped and skipped all over the floor 

And "Young man, I won't have ye." 

Sweet William died on Saturday night, 

And Barbara on Sunday. 
The Old Woman died last of all, 

She died on Easter Monday. 



J 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 11 



(A) THE TWO SISTERS 

"O sister, O sister, come go with me, 
Go with me down to the sea." 

Jm*y flower gent the rose-berry. 
The jury hangs over the rose-berry. 

She picked her up all in her strong arms 
And threwed her sister into the sea. 

"O sister, O sister, give me your glove. 
And you may have my own true love. 

'^O sister, sister, give me your hand. 
And you may have my house and land." 

"0 sister, sister, I'll not give you my hand; 
And I will have your house and land." 

O the farmer's wife was sitting on a rock. 
Tying and a-sewing of a black silk knot. 

'^O farmer, farmer, run here and see 
What's this a-floating here by me." 

" It's no fish and it's no swan, 

For the water's drowned a gay lady." 



12 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

The fanner run with his great hook 
And hooked this fair lady out of the sea. 

"O what will we do with her fingers so small?" 
''We'll take them and we'll make harp screws. 



ff 



n 



O what will we do with her hair so long?" 
We'll take it and we'll make harp strings." 



O the farmer was hung by the gallows so high, 
And the sister was burned at the stake close by. 

(B) THE OLD MAN IN THE NORTH COUNTREE 

There was an old man in the North Countree, 

Bow down 
There was an old man in the North Coimtree, 

And a bow 'twas unto me 
There was an old man in the North Countree, 
He had daughters one, two, three. 

I'll be true to my love if my love is true to mCo 

There was a young man came a-courting 
And he made choice of the yoimgest one. 

He gave his love a beaver cape; 

The second she thought much of that. 

"Sister, sister, let us go down 
And see the ships go saihng by." 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 13 

As they was a-walking by the saucy brimside 
The oldest pushed the youngest in. 

"Sister, sister lend me your hand, a 
And I'll give you my house and land/' 

"What care I for house and lands? 

All that I want is your true love's hand/' 

Down she sunk and away she swam 
Till she came to the miller's miU-dam. 

The miller ran out with his jfish-hook 
And fished the maiden out of the brook. 

"The miller shall be hung on his own mill-gate 
For drownding my poor sister Kate." 

5 
(A) THE JEWISH LADY 

It rained a mist, it rained a mist, 

It rained all over the land; 
Till all the boys throughout the town 

Went out to toss their ball, ball, ball, 

Went out to toss their ball. 

At first they tossed their ball too high, 
And then again too low. 



14 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

Till over in the Jewish garden it fell, 
Where no one was darst to go, go, go, 
Where no one was darst to go. 

Out came a Jewish lady. 

All dressed so gay and fine. 
*'Come in, my pretty Uttle boy,'' she said, 

''And you shall have your ball, ball, ball. 

And you shall have your ball." 

At first she showed him a yellow apple dish, 

And a gay gold ring, 
And then a cherry as red as blood, 

To entice this little boy in, in, in, 

To entice this little boy in. 

She took him by his httle white hand, 
And led him through the hall. 

And then unto a cellar so deep. 

Where no one could hear him lament, lament, 
Where no one could hear him lament. 

''If any of my playmates should call for me, 

You may tell them that I'm asleep; 
But if my mother should call for me, 

You may tell her that I am dead. 
And buried with a prayer-book at my feet, 

And a bible at my head, head, head, 

And a bible at my head." 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 15 
(B) THE JEW LADY 

My ball flew over in a Jew's garden, 

Where no one dared to go, 
I saw a Jew lady in a green silk dress 

A-standing by the do'. 

''Come in, come in, my pretty little boy, 

You may have your ball again.'' 
"I won't, I won't, I won't come in, 

Because my heart is blood." 

She took me then by her hly-white hand, 

And led me in the kitchen. 
She sot me down on a golden chair, 

And fed me on sugar and rice. 

She took me then by her Hly-white hand. 

And led me in the kitchen. 
She laid me down on a golden plank. 

And stobbed me Uke a sheep. 

"You lay my Bible at my head. 

And my prayer book at my feet. 
And if any of my playmates they ask for me. 

Just tell them I've gone to sleep." 



16 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

6 

(A) THE WIFE WRAPPED IN A WETHER'S 

SKIN 

Sweet William married him a wife, 

Jennifer Jmie and the Rosemaree 
To be the sweet comfort of his life. 

As the dew flies over the green vallee. 

It's she couldn't into the kitchen go, 
For fear of soiling her white-heeled shoes. 

It's she couldn't wash and she wouldn't bake, 
For fear of soiling her white apron-tape. 

It's she couldn't card and she wouldn't spin. 
For fear of spoiling her dehcate skin. 

Sweet WiUiam came whistling in from the plow; 
Says, ''O my dear wife, is my dinner ready now?" 

She called him a dirty paltry whelp: 

"If you want any dinner, go get it yom-self." 

Sweet William went out unto the sheepfold. 
And out a fat wether he did pull. 

Upon his knees he did kneel down. 
And soon from it did strip the skin. 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 17 

He laid the skin on his wife's back 

And he made the stick go whickety whack. 

"I'll tell my father and all his kin 
How you this quarrel did begin.'' 

''You may tell your father and all your kin 
How I have thrashed my fat wether's skin." 

Sweet WilKam came whistling in from the plow, 
Says, "O my dear wife, is my dinner ready now?" 

She drew her table and spread her board. 

And 'twas "O my dear husband," with every word. 

And now they Kve free from all care and strife, 
And now she makes WiUiam a very good wife. 

(B) DANDOO 

A httle old man Kved in the west, 

Dandoo, dandoo 
A Httle old man lived in the west, 

Clamadore clash may cHngs 
A Kttle old man lived in the west. 
He had a httle wife that was none of the best. 

And a lambo scrambo churum churum 

Calla may clash may clings. 

This little old man came in from his plow. 
Saying, "Honey have you got my breakfast now?" 



18 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

"There lays a piece of cold bread on the shelf. 
If you want any more you can get it yourself. '* 

He drew the old wether up to the pin, 
And at three jerks fetched off his skin. 

He threw the sheep's skin around his wife's back, 
And two little sticks went whickety whack. 



(A) CHILDREN'S SONG 

The starry Hght and the lady bright, 

Her children she had three. 
She sent them away to the North coimtry 

To learn those gramerie. 

They hadn't been gone but a very short time, 

Scarce three months and a day, 
Till death came rushing along over the land 

And swept those babes away. 

Their mother came as far to know. 

She wrung her hands full sore. 
"The less, the less, the less!" she cried, 

"Shall I see my babes no more?" 

"There were a king in heaven," she said, 
"That used to wear a crown; 



I 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 19 

Send all my three little babes tonight 
Or in the morning soon.'' 

Or Christmas times were drawing nigh, 

The nights were long and cold; 
Her three little babes came rushing along 

Down to their mother's hall. 

She fixed them a table in the dining room, 
Spread over with bread and wine; 

Saying, "Eat, O, eat my sweet Httle babes; 
Come eat and drink of mine." 

"Mama, we cannot eat your bread. 

Nor we can't drink your wine; 
For yonder stands our Saviour dear, 

And to him we'll return." 

She fixed them a bed in the backmost room, 

Spread over with a clean sheet. 
And a golden wine upon the top of them 

To make them sweeter sleep. 

"Take it off, take it off," says the oldest one, 

"The cocks they will soon crow; 
For yonder stands our Saviour dear. 

And to him we must go. 

"Cold clods lays on our feet, mama; 

Green grass grows over our heads; 
The tears that run all down our cheeks 

Did wet the winding sheets." 



20 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 
(B) THREE LITTLE BABES 

Christmas time was drawing near 
And the nights were growing cold, 

When three Httle babes came running down 
Into their mother's fold. 



She spread a table long and wide, 

And on it put bread and wine. 
"Come eat, come drink, my sweet Kttle babes; 

Come eat and drink of mine.'' 



"We want none of yom* bread, mother, 
We want none of your wine. 

For yonder stands our blessed Lord 
And to Him we will join.'' 

She made a bed in the very best room, 

And on it put clean sheets, 
And over the top a golden spread. 

The sweeter they might sleep. 



"Take it off, take it off," cried the eldest one, 

"Take it off," cried he, 
"For I would not stay in this wicked world, 

Since Christ has died for me. 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 21 

"A sad farewell, kind mother dear, 

We give the parting hand, 
To meet again on that fair shore 

In Canaan's happy land. 

"A tombstone at our head, mother, 

The cold clay at om- feet; 
The tears we have shed for you, mother. 

Have wet these winding sheets.'' 

8 
THE CRUEL BROTHER 

Three ladies played at cup and ball, — 

With a hey! and my lily gay! 
Three knights there came among them all. 

The rose it smells so sweetly. 

And one of them was dressed in green, — 
He asked me to be his queen. 

And one of them was dressed in yellow, — 
He asked me to be his fellow. 

And one of them was dressed in red, — 
He asked me with him to wed. 

"But you must ask my father the King, 
And you must ask my mother the Queen, — 



22 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

"And you must ask my sister Anne, 
And you must ask my brother John/' 

"0 1 have asked your father the King, 
And I have asked your mother the Queen, — 

"And I have asked your sister Anne, 
And I have asked yoiu* brother John/' 

Her father led her down the stairs, 
Her mother led her down the hall. 

Her sister Anne led her down the walk. 
Her brother John put her on her horse. 

And as she stooped to give him a kiss. 
He stuck a penknife into her breast. 

"Ride up, ride up, my foremost man! 
Me thinks my lady looks pale and wan!'' 

"O what will you leave to your father the King? 
"The golden coach that I ride in." 



"And what will you leave to yom* mother the 

Queen?" 
"The golden chair that I sit in." 

"And what will you leave to your sister Anne?" 
"My silver brooch and golden fan." 



yy 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 23 

"And what will you leave to your brother John?'* 
"A pair of gallows to hang him on.'' 

"And what will you leave to your brother John's 

wife?" 
"Grief and misfortune all her life." 

9 

EDWARD 

"How come that blood on your shirt sleeve, 

Pray son, now tell to me?" 
"It is the blood of the old greyhound. 

That run young fox for me." 

"It is too pale for that old greyhound. 

Pray son, now tell to me." 
"It is the blood of the old grey mare, 

That ploughed that corn for me." 

"It is too pale for that old grey mare, 

Pray son, now tell to me." 
"It is the blood of my youngest brother 

That hoed that corn for me." 

"What did you fall out about, 

Pray son, now tell to me?" 
^ Because he cut yon holly bush 

Which might have made a tree." 



24 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

"0 what will you tell to your father dear, 
When he comes home from town?'' 
"I'll set my foot in yonder ship 
And sail the ocean round." 

"O what will you do with yoiu* sweet little wifO; 

Pray son, now tell to me?" 
"I'll set her foot in yonder ship 

To keep me company." 



"O what will you do with yom* three little babes, 

Pray son, now tell to me?" 
"I'll leave them here, in the care of you, 

For to keep you company." 

" O what will you do with yoiu* house and your land, 

Pray son, now tell to me?" 
"I'll leave it here, in care of you, 

For to set my children free." 



10 

THE LOWLANDS LOW 

Up then spake our noble cabin boy, 
Saying, "What will you give me if I will them destroy? 
If I will them destroy, send them floating o'er the tide, 
And sink them in the Lowlands, the Lowlands low, 
And sink them in the Lowlands low?" 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 25 

"O the man that them destroys/' the captain made 

reply, 
*'A fortune he shall have and my daughter to wife, 
A fortune he shall have and my daughter beside, 
If he'll sink them in the Lowlands, the Lowlands low, 
If he'll sink them in the Lowlands low." 

The one was playing at cards and the other playing at 

dice, 
The boy swam up and he scuttled them so nice. 
He scuttled them so nice, sent them floating with the 

tide. 
And sank them in the Lowlands low. 
And sank them in the Lowlands low. 

The boy swam first unto the starboard side, 
Saying, "Captain pick me up for I'm wearied with the 
tide, 

Captain pick me up for I'm wearied with the tide 
And I'm sinking in the Lowlands, the Lowlands low, 
And I'm sinking in the Lowlands low." 

"O no," rephed the Captain, "I will not pick you up, 

1 will sink you, I will shoot you, send you floating with 

the tide, 
I will sink you, I will shoot you, send you floating with 

the tide. 
And I'll sink you in the Lowlands, the Lowlands low. 
And I'll sink you in the Lowlands low." 



26 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

The boy swam round unto the larboard side, 

Saying, "Messmates, pick me up, for I'm wearied with 

the tide, 
O messmates, pick me up for I'm wearied with the 

tide. 
And I'm sinking in the Lowlands, the Lowlands low, 
And I'm sinking in the Lowlands low." 

His messmates picked him up, and on the deck he died. 
They sewed him up in his hammock so wide. 
They sewed him up, sent him floating with the tide, 
And they sank him in the Lowlands, the Lowlands low, 
And they sank him in the Lowlands low. 

11 
THREE SAILOR BOYS 

Up spoke the man of our gallant ship. 

And a well spoken man was he, 
Saying, '^I married me a wife in a far distant town, 

And tonight a widow she will be, be, be, 

And tonight a widow she will be." 

For the roaring sea, they do roar, roar, 

And the stormy winds they do blow, 

As the three poor sailor boys they were mounted 

up aloft, 
While the love land was lying down below, doT^^ 

below, 
While the love land was lying down below. 



I 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 27 

Up spoke the boy of our gallant ship, 

And a well spoken boy was he, 
Saying, "I have a true love in a far distant town, 

And tonight she'll be waiUng for me, for me, 

And tonight she'll be waiHng for me." 

Up spoke the girl of our gallant ship. 
And a well spoken girl was she. 

Saying, ''I have been used to sleeping on a soft feather 
bed. 
And tonight on the bottom of the sea, the sea, 
And tonight on the bottom of the sea/' 

Up spoke the cook of our gallant ship. 
And a greasy old thing was she, 

Saying, ^'I can have more fun with my kettles and my 
pots 
Than to sink to the bottom of the sea, the sea, 
Than to sink to the bottom of the sea/' 

Six times around sails our gallant ship. 

Six times around sails she. 
Six times around sails our gallant ship. 

And she sank to the bottom of the sea, the sea, 

And she sank to the bottom of the sea. 

12 
LORD THOMAS 

Lord Thomas he was a bold forester. 
The chaser of the king's deer; 



28 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

Fair Ellen she was a sweet young lady, 
Lord Thomas he loved her dear. 

*'Come riddle my riddle, dear mother,'' he said, 

''Come riddle it all in one, 
Whether I shall marry fair Ellen or no 

Or bring the brown girl home/' 

"The brown girl she has houses and land, 

Fair Ellen she has none. 
So I advise you with my blessing 

To bring the brown girl home." 

Lord Thomas he dressed in scarlet red. 

His merry men all were seen, 
And as he rode along the street, 

They took him to be a king. 

He rode till he came to fair Ellen's gate. 

He knocked loud at the ring. 
And who was there but fair Ellen herseK 

To let Lord Thomas in? 



"What news, what news?" fair Ellen said, 
"What news have you brought me?" 

"I've come to invite you to my wedding, 
Most miserable news for thee." 

"0 God forbid," fair Ellen she said, 
''That such a thing should be done, 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 29 

I thought to be the bride myself 
And thou shouldst be the groom/^ 

''Come riddle my riddle, dear mother/' she said, 

''Come riddle it all in one, 
Whether I shall go to Lord Thomas' wedding, 

Or shall I stay at home?'' 

"0 to Lord Thomas' wedding don't go. 
To Lord Thomas' wedding don't go; 

As many as are your friends, dear daughter. 
There's more will be your foes." 

"To Lord Thomas' wedding I'll go," she said, 
"To Lord Thomas' wedding I'll go. 

If it costs my heart's blood, body and all. 
To Lord Thomas' wedding I'll go." 

Fair Ellen she diessed in scarlet red, 

Her merry maids all were seen. 
And as she rode along the street 

They took her to be a queen. 

She rode till she came to Lord Thomas' gate, 

She knocked loud at the ring. 
And who was there but Lord Thomas himself 

To let fair Ellen in. 

He took her by her Uly-white hand, 
He led her through the hall; 



30 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

He placed her on the noblest chair 
Among the ladies all. 

"Is this your bride?'' fair Ellen said, 
"I think she is wonderful brown, 

You might have had as fair a young lady 
As ever put foot on ground/' 

'^Despise her not," Lord Thomas he said, 

"Despise her not unto me; 
Better I love your Httle finger 

Than the brown girl's whole body." 

The brown girl she had a Uttle pen-knife^ 

It was both keen and sharp; 
Betwixt the long ribs and the short 

She pierced fair Ellen's heart. 

"What ails, what ails?" Lord Thomas he said, 
"I think you are wonderful pale; 

You used to have so fair a color, 
As ever a rose could bloom." 

"0 are you blind," fair Ellen said, 
"Or can you not very well see? 

O don't you see my own heart's blood 
Go trickhng down my knee?" 

Lord Thomas he had a two-edged sword, 
He flourished it all around; 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 31 

He took the brown girFs head from the shoulders 
And threw it to the ground. 

He put the handle on the ground, 

The point was towards his heart. 
Those three true lovers they very well met, 

But sadly they did depart. 

''O dig my grave/' Lord Thomas he said, 

''Dig it both wide and deep, 
And lay fair Ellen in my arms. 

And the brown girl at my feet.'' 

Out of Lord Thomas there grew a golden briar, 

And out of fair Ellen a thorn; 
Those three true lovers they very well met. 

But better they'd never been born. 

13 
THE HANGMAN'S SONG 

''Hangman, hangman, slack up your rope, 

O slack it for a while, 
I looked over yonder and I see Paw coming. 

He's walked for many a long mile." 

"Say Paw, say Paw, have you brung me any gold, 

Any gold for to pay my fine?" 
"No sir, no sir, I've brung you no gold. 



32 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

No gold for to pay your fine, 
But I'm just come for to see you hanged, 
Hanged on the gallows Hne/' 

"O you won't love and it's hard to be beloved 
And it's hard to make up your time, 

You have broke the heart of many a true love, 
True love, but you won't break mine." 

'^Hangman, hangman, slack up your rope, 

O slack it for a while, 
I looked over yonder and I see Maw coming. 

She's walked for many a long mile." 

'^Say Maw, say Maw, have you brought me any 
gold. 

Any gold for to pay my fine?" 
''No sir, no sir, I've brought you no gold, 

No gold for to pay your fine, ' 
But I'm just come for to see you hanged, 

Hanged on the gallows fine." 

''O you won't love and it's hard to be beloved, 
And it's hard to make up your time. 

You have broken the heart of many a true love, 
True love, but you won't break mine." 



"Hangman, hangman, slack up your rope, 
O slack it for a while. 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 33 

I looked over yonder and I see my sweetheart 
coming, 
She's walked for many a long mile/' 

"Sweetheart, sweetheart, have you brought me 
any gold. 

Any gold for to pay my fine?'' 
"Yes sir, yes sir, I've brought you some gold, 

Some gold for to pay yom* fine, 
For I'm just come for to take you home, 

From on the gallows Hne." 

14 
LORD BAYHAM 

Lord Bayham was a brave young man, 

He was as brave as brave could be ; 
He grew oneasy and discontented 

Till he had taken a voyage to sea. 

He was blown east, he was blown west, 
He was blown to some Turkish shore. 

Where the Turks they got him and sorely used him; 
He vowed for freedom any more. 

They bored a hole through his left shoulder, 

And bound him fast unto a tree. 
And gave him nothing but bread and water, 

Bread and water once a day. 



34 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

The Turks they had one only daughter, 

She was as fair as fair could be; 
She stole the keys of her father's prison, 

And vowed Lord Bayham she would set free. 

"O have you land, or have you Kving, 

Or have you houses, many, free. 
That you could give to a Turkish lady 

If out of prison she'd set you free?'' 



(( 



)} 



Yes, I have land and I have living, 
And I have houses, many free, 
I'll give them all to you, pretty creature. 
If out of prison you'll set me free." 

She led him down to her father's cellar. 
And drawed to him the best port wine, 

And drank a health; those words did follow, 
"Lord Bayham, if you were but mine! 

O now the notes of love were drawn, 
And seven years they were to stand; 

He was to marry no other woman. 
Unless she married some other man. 

She led him down to the sea shore. 
And sat him sailing on the main. 

''Farewell, farewell, my own dear jewel. 
When shall I see your fair face again!" 



1 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 35 

Seven years were gone and past, 

And seven weeks and almost three, 
She bundled up her silks and rubies. 

And vowed Lord Bayham she would see. 

And when she got to Lord Bayham's gate, 
She knocked so loud she made it ring. 

^' Who's there? Who's there?" cried the young 
proud porter, 
'*That knocks so loud and won't come in.'' 

"Is this Lord Bayham's land and living? 

Or is Lord Bayham himself at home?" 
"This is Lord Bayham's land and living. 

He has this day fetched a young bride home." 



t( 



I've a gold ring on every finger, 
And on my middle finger three. 
I'll give them all to you, young proud porter, 
If you will do one thing for nie. . . . 



"Go down into your father's cellar, 
And draw to me the best port wine. 

And drink a health to a prince's daughter, 
Who freed you from your prison bound 



)f 



He went unto his master dear. 
And fell low down upon his knees. 

"Rise up, rise up, you young proud porter, 
What news have you brought unto me?" 



36 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

"This seven weeks I kept your gates, 

And seven weeks and almost three, 
There's the fairest lady stands at your gates 

That ever my two eyes did see. 

"She has a gold ring on every finger. 

And on the middle finger three; 
She has more fine gold around her waist 

Than would buy old England, France, and thee.^^ 

Lord Bayham rose upon his feet, 

And spht his table in pieces three. 
Saying, "I'll forfeit all my land and hving 

That the Turkish lady has crossed the sea." 

Then up bespoke the young bride's mother, 

Those words in anger she did say; 
"Would you forsake my own dear daughter. 

And marry a Turkish lady?" 

He says, "Here is your daughter as I got her. 

I'm sure she is none the worse of me. 
She came to me on a horse and saddle, 

I'll send her home in her coach and three." 

He took Susan by her httle white hands. 
And led her down the golden stream. 

And changed her name from lovely Susan, 
And called her Lord Bayham's queen. 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 37 

15 

LITTLE MATTHY GROVES 

The first come down was a raven white, 

And the next come down was a poUy, 

And the next come down was Lord Thomas's wife, 

And she was the fairest of them all, all. 

And she was the fairest of them all. 

Little Matthy Groves was a-standing by; 
She placed her eyes on him, 
Saying: "You're the darling of my heart 
And the darUng of my hfe. 

"It's you no home, no place to lie. 

Go home with me this night." 

''I think by the rings you wear on your fingers 

You are Lord Thomas's wife." 

"True I am Lord Thomas's wife. 

Lord Thomas is not at home." 

The little foot-page was a-standing by, 

These words heareth he, 

And he licked to his heels and run. 

He run, he run to the broken-down bridge. 
He bent to his breast and swum; 
He swum, he swum to the other, other side. 
And he buckled up his shoes and he run. 



38 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

He run, he run to Lord Thomas's gate, 
And he dingled at the ring and it rung, 
And he dingled at the ring and it rung. 
"What news, what news, my Kttle foot-page? 
What news you Ve brought to me?'' 
"Little Matthy Groves is at your house 
In bed with the gay lady." 



(( 



If that be a he you've brought to me, 
And a lie I expect it to be. 

If there is e'er a green tree in these whole worlds, 
A hangman you shall be. 

"If that be the truth you've brought to me, 
And the truth I don't expect it to be. 
You may wed my youngest daughter. 
And you may have all I've got." 

Lord Thomas's wife raised up about half a doze asleep. 
"Lay still, lay still," Httle Matthy Groves says, 
"Lay still, I tell to thee, 

For it's nothing but your father's little shepherd boy 
A-driving the wolves from the sheep." 

When little Matthy Groves did wake 

Lord Thomas was at his feet. 

"Rise up, rise up," Lord Thomas he says, 

"And put your clothing on. 

For it never shall be known in old England 

That I slew a naked man. 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 39 

"How can I rise up, "he says, 

"When I am afeard of my Ufe? 

For you have two good broad-edged swords 

And I have not so much as a knife." 

"True I have two good broad swords, 
They cost me deep in the purse. 
But you may have the very best one, 
And you may have the first Kck.'' 

The very first lick little Matthy Groves struck, 
He struck him across the head, 
And the very next lick Lord Thomas he struck, 
And it killed little Matthy Groves dead. 

He took his gay lady by the hand. 
And he led her up and down. 
He says: ''How do you like my blankets 
And how do you Hke my sheets?" 

"Well enough your blankets, 

And well enough your sheets. 

But much better do I love little Matthy Groves 

Within my arms asleep." 

He took his gay lady by the hand. 
And he pulled her on his knee, 
And the very best sword that he did have 
He split her head into twine. 



40 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

16 
SWEET WILLIAM 

Sweet William arose on last May morning/ 

And dressed himself in blue; 
''Come tell unto me that long, long love 

Between Lyddy Margret and you.'' 

"I know no haim of Lyddy Margret, my love, 

I'm sure she knows none of me; 
By eight o'clock tomorrow morning 

Lyddy Margret my bride shall see." 

Lyddy Margret was sitting in her own bower room 

A-combing her yellow hair; 
She saw Sweet WiUiam and his new bride 

As they came riding near. 

Lyddy Margret threw down her golden comb, 

And quickly she bound up her hair; 
And away she went from her own bower room, 

No more to be seen there. 

The day being past and night come on 

When all men were asleep, 
Lyddy Margret's ghost came about midnight 

And stood at Sweet William's bed feet. 

"How do you like your bed?" she said, 
"How do you like your sheet; 



I 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 41 

How do you like that fair ladie 
That lies in your arms asleep?" 

"Very well I like my bed/' he said, 

"Very well I hke my sheet; 
But better I Kke the fair ladie 

That stands at my bed feet/' 

The night being gone and day come on, 

When all men were awake; 
Sweet WiUiam he rose with trouble on his mind 

From the dream that he dreamed last night. 

"Such dreams, such dreams as I dreamed last night, 

Such dreams are never good; 
I dreamed my room was full of wild swine. 

My bride bed full of blood." 

Sweet WilHam he called his merry men all 

By ones, by twos, by threes; 
Before them all he asked his bride 

If Lyddy Margret he might go see. 

"What will you do with Lyddy Margret, my love, 

And what will you do with me?" 
"Today I go see Lyddy Margret," he said, 

"Tomorrow return to thee." 

He rode till he came to Lyddy Margret's hall. 
And dingled so loud on the ring; 



42 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

And who so ready as her own brothers 
To rise and let him come in? 

"Is Margret in her own bower room, 

Or is she in her hall, 
Or is she in the kitchen 

Among her merry maids all?'' 

"She's neither in the kitchen. 

She's neither in her hall; 
But she is in her own bower room 

Laid out against the wall." 

"Raise up, raise up that cofiin lid 

So I can gaze within; 
And let me kiss her clay-cold lips 

Lord send it the breath was in." 

First he kissed her on the cheek. 

And then he kissed her chin; 
And then he kissed her clay-cold Ups 

That oft times had kissed him. 

"Fold down, fold down those snowy white sheets, 

All made of Knen so Gne; 
Today they hang over Margret's corpse. 

Tomorrow hang over mine." 

Lyddy Margret died it might have been today, 
Sweet William died tomorrow. 



|j 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 43 

Lyddy Margret died for pure, pure love, 
Sweet William died for sorrow. 

Lyddy Margret was buried in the lower church yard, 
Sweet WilUam was buried in the higher; 

And out of her grave there sprang a red rose. 
And out of his grave a briar. 

They grew and they grew to the high church top, 

And then they could grow no higher; 
And there they tied in a true lover's knot 

The red rose and the briar. 

17 
THE HOUSE CARPENTER 

"Well met, well met, my own true love, 

Well met, well met,'' says he, 
"I've just returned from the salt, salt sea. 

And it's all for the sake of thee. 

"I could have married a king's daughter fair. 
And she fain would have married me. 

But I refused her crowns of gold, 
And it's all for the sake of thee." 

"If you could have married a king's daughter fair, 
I think 'twould have been your plan. 

For I have marry-ed a house carpenter, 
And I think him a nice young man." 



44 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 



(( 



If you'll forsake your house carpenter, 
And go along with me, 
I'll take you where the grass grows green 
On the banks of Italy.'' 

She called her babe unto her knee, 

And kisses gave it three, 
Saying, ^^Stay at home, you pretty Kttle babe, 

Keep your father's company. 



>> 



She dressed herself in scarlet red. 

Most glorious to behold. 
And as they sailed the ports all round. 

She shone like the gUttering gold. 

They had not aboard the ship two weeks, 

I'm siure it was not three, 
When the fair lady began for to weep. 

And she wept most bitterlally. 

'^'0, is it for my gold that you weep. 

Or is it for my store, 
Or is it for your house carpenter. 

Whom you ne'er shall see no more?" 

"It is not for your gold that I weep. 

Nor neither for yoiu* store, 
But I do mourn for the pretty little babe 

That I left on the other shore." 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 45 

They had not been on board three weeks, 

I'm sure it was not four, 
When this gallant ship she sprang a leak. 

And she sank for to rise no more. 

A curse, a curse to that young man, 

And a curse to the seaman's Hfe, 
A-robbing of the house carpenter 

And a-steahng away his wife! 



18 
TWO LITTLE BOYS 

Two little boys going to school, 

Two Httle boys they be; 
Two Uttle boys going to school 

To learn their ABC. 

^'0, will you toss a ball with me, 
Or will you throw a stone? 

Or will you wrestle along with me 
On the road as we go home?" 

"I will not toss a ball with you, 

Nor will I throw a stone. 
But I will wrestle along with you. 

On the road as we go home." 



46 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

t 

They wrestled up, they wrestled down, 
They wrestled around and around. 

And a little penknife run through John's pocket, 
And he received a deadly wound. 

"Take off, take off my fine cotton shirt, 

And tear it from gore to gore, 
And bind it aroimd that bloody bloody wound, 

That it may bleed no more. 



>> 



So I took off his fine cotton shirt, 

And tore it from gore to gore, 
And bound it around that bloody bloody wound. 

So it would bleed no more. 

"0 what shall I tell your mother, John, 

If she inquires for you?'' 
"0, tell her I've gone to the royal school 

My books to bring home." 



"O what shall I tell your sister, John, 

If she inquires for you?" 
"O, tell her I've gone down to the city, 

Some friends for to see." 

"O, what shall I tell you true love, John, 

If she inquires for you?" 
"O, tell her I'm dead and lying in my grave, 

Way out in Idaho." 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 47 

19 

THE CHERRY TREE CAROL 

When Joseph was an old man, an old man was he, 
He married Virgin Mary, the Queen of Galilee. 

As Joseph and Mary were walking one day 

Here are apples, here are cherries, enough to behold. 

Then Mary spoke to Joseph so meek and so mild, 
"Joseph gather me some cherries, for I am with child." 

Then Joseph flew in anger, in anger flew he, 

"Let the father of the baby gather cherries for thee." 

Then Jesus spoke a few words, a few words spoke He, 
"Let my mother have some cherries, bow low down. 
Cherry Tree." 

The cherry tree bowed low down, bowed low down 

to the ground. 
And Mary gathered cherries while Joseph stood around. 

Then Joseph took Mary all on his right knee: 
"What have I done — Lord have mercy on me I" 

Then Joseph took Mary all on his left knee: 

"0 tell me little baby, when Thy birthday will be?" 

"The sixth day of January my birthday will be, 
When the stars in theirjelements shall tremble with glee." 



48 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

20 

THE FALSE KNIGHT 

*' Where are you going?'' said the false knight, false 
knight, 

"Where are you going?'' said the false knight Munro. 
"Well," said the httle boy, "I'm going to school, 

But I'll stand to my book al-so." 

"What you got in your basket?" said the false knight, 
false knight, 
"What you got in your basket?" said the false 
knight Munro. 
"Well," said the httle boy, "my breakfast and my 
dinner. 
But I'U stand to my book al-so." 

"Give my dog some," said the false knight Mimro. 

"Give my dog some," said false knight Mimro. 
"Well," said the httle boy, "I won't give him none, 

But I'll stand to my book al-so." 

"Then I'll pitch you in the well," said the false knight 
Munro, 
"Then I'll pitch you in the well," said the false 
knight Munro. 
" WeU," said the httle boy, 'I'll pitch you in first, 
But I'll stand to my book al-so. 



n 



And he pitched him in the well and went on to school, 



OTHER IMPORTED 
BALLADS AND 

SONGS 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 51 

21 
(A) THE DROWSY SLEEPER 



(( 



Arouse, arouse, ye drowsy sleepers, 
Arouse, arouse, 'tis almost day. 
Open your door, your dining room window, 
And hear what your true lover say." 

"What is this that comes imder my window, 

A-speaking to me thus speedily? '^ 
"It is your Jimmy, your own true Jimmy, 

A-wanting to speak one word with thee." 

"Go away from my window, you'll waken my father, 

For he's taking of his rest. 
Under his pillow there Ues a weapon 

To pierce the man that I love best. 

"Go away from my window, you'll waken my mother, 

For tales of war she will not hear. 
Go away and com-t some other. 

Or whisper lowly in my ear." 

"I won't go away and court any other. 

For here I do no harm; 
I only want you from your own dear mother, 

To wrap you in your lover's arms. 

"I wish I was down in some lonesome valley, 
Where I could neither see nor hear. 



62 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

My food it should be grief and sorrow, 
My drink it would be the briny tear. 

" Down in a valley there lies a sharp arrow, 

I wish I had it across my breast; 
It would cut off all grief and sorrow, 

And lay this troubled heart to rest." 

(B) WILLIE AND MARY 

"0 who is at my bedroom window, 
Who weeps and sighs so bitterly. . . . 

"O Mary dear, go ask your mother. 
If you my wedded bride may be; 

And if she says 'Nay' then come and tell me, 
And I no more will trouble thee." 



(( 



O WiUie dear, I dare not ask her, 
For she Kes on her bed of rest; 
And by her side there Hes another. 



ti 



0, Mary dear, go ask your father, 
If you my wedded bride may be; 
And if he says 'Nay' then come and tell me, 
And I no more will trouble thee." 

"O WiUie dear, I dare not ask him, 

For he is on his bed of rest; 
And by his side there hes a dagger 

To pierce the one that I love best." 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 53 

Then Willie drew a silver dagger 

And pierced it through his aching breast, 

Saying, his farewell to his own true lover, 
"Farewell, farewell, I am at rest/' 

Then Mary drew the bloody dagger 

And pierced it through her snow-white breast, 

Saying her farewell, "Dear father, mother. 
Farewell, farewell, we're both at rest.'' 

22 

(A) THE BAMBOO BRIARS 

One night as they was sitting courting 
Two villains overheard. 
Saying, "This com-tship it shall be ended, 
We will send him along to his grave." 

And to conclude this bloody murder 
A-hunting these two villains did go. 

They travelled over hills and hollows 

And places too that was not known. 

Until they came to the bamboo briars. 

And there they killed him — killed and thrown. 

It is "Dear brothers, where have you been? 
The reason I ask you seems to whisper — 
Dear brothers, tell me if you can." 



54 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

One night as she was lying weeping, 

He came to her in gory blood, 

Saying, *^ What do you weep for, you harmless creature? 

Your brothers killed me, killed and thrown. 



it 



And was by being both rash and cruel 
In such a place you can me find/' 

She travelled over hills and hollows 
And places too that was not known. 
Until she came to the bamboo briars, 
And there she foimd him killed and thrown. 

She stayed three days, himger came on her, 
Then she returned back home again. 

It is, "Dear sister where have you been? 
The reason we ask you seems to whisper, 
Dear sister, tell us if you can. 



)9 



"You are two hard-hearted, deceitful villains, 
For him alone you both shall swing." 
And, dear friends, if you'U beheve me, 
The raging seas provide their grave. 



(B) THE APPRENTICE BOY 

In yon post-town there lived a margent, 
He had two sons and a daughter fair: 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 55 

There lived a 'prentice boy about there, 
Who was the daughter's dearest dear. 

Ten thousand pounds was this gay lady's portion; 
She was a fair and a eamelite dame; 
She loved this young man who crossed the ocean; 
He told her how he ^ould be so deslain. 

One day they was in the room a-courting; 
The oldest brother chanced to hear; 
He went and told the other brother, 
They would deprive her of her dear. 

Her brothers studied on this cruel matter, 
Concluded a-hunting they would go, 
And with this yoimg man they both would flatter; 
A-hunting with them he had to go. 

They traveled over high hills and mountains 
And through strange places where it were xmknown, 
Till at length they came to some lonesome valley, 
And then they killed him dead and thrown. 

All on that evening when they returned. 
She asked them where's her servant-man; 
'^What makes me ask you?" she seems to whisper, 
''Dear brothers, tell me if you can." 

"He is lost in the wild woods a-hunting; 
His face you never more shall see." 



56 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

"I'll tell you in plain, you're much affronted; 
Oh, now will you explain to me." 

All on that night while she lay sleeping, 
He came and stood at her bed-feet. 
All covered o'er in tears a-weeping. 
All wallowed o'er in gores of blood. 

He says, "My love it's but a folly; 
For this is me that you may see — 
Your brothers both being rash and cruel — 
In such a valley you may find." 

All on next morning when she arose. 
She dressed herself in silk so fine; 
She traveled o'er high hills and moimtains 
Her own true-lover for to find. 

She traveled o'er high hills and mountains 
And through strange places where it were unknown, 
Till at length she came to some lonesome valley 
Till at length she came to a patch of briars. 
And there she found him killed and thrown. 

His pretty cheeks with blood were dyed; 
His lips were bloody as any butcher. 
His Ups (cheeks) were salty as any brine; 
She kissed them over and over a-crying, 
"You dearest bosom friend of mine!" 

Three days and night she tarried with him. 

Till she thought her heart would break with woe, 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 57 

Until sharp hunger came cropping on her, 
Which forced her back home to go. 

All on that evening when she returned, 
Her brothers asked her where she'd been— 
'^O ye hard-hearted deceitful devilhons. 
For him alone you both shall swing." 

Her brothers studied on this bloody matter 
Concluded the ocean they would sail; 
''My friend, I tell you, it's on the morrow 
The raging sea there for to sail.'' 

The sea began to roar, I think no wonder 
That they two villyons should be cast away; 
And broadways they came tosHng under; 
The sea did open and provide their grave. 

23 

(A) THE BOSTON BURGLAR 

I was born in Boston, a place you all know well. 
Brought up by honest parents, the truth to you I'll tell; 
Brought up by honest parents and watched most 

tenderly. 
Till I became a roving boy at the age of twenty-three. 

For burglaring I was taken and I was sent to jail; 
My friends they came to bail me out, but it was of no 
avail. 



58 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

The judge then read my sentence, the clerk he wrote 

it down, 
Said, "For seven long and weary years you're going 

to Jefferson town/' 

To see my aged father come pleading at the bar, 

To see my aged mother a-puUing her gray hair, 

Yes, pulling those gray locks, my boy, and the tears 

came streaming down. 
Said she, "My son, what have you done? You're 

going to Jefferson town." 

They put me on board an eastern train one cold and 

stormy day, 
And every station that I passed I heard the people say, 
"There goes that noted burglar, in iron he's boimd 

down. 
For robbing of the Boston bank he's going to Jefferson 

town." 

There is a girl in Boston, I know she loves me well 
If e'er I gain my Hberty 'tis with this girl I'll dwell; 
If e'er I gain my Hberty, bad company I'll shim, 
I'll bid adieu to night-walking and also drinking nun. 

Come all you jolly fellows, a warning take of me. 
And never go night-walking and shim bad company. 
For if you do, you'll surely rue, and you'll be sent 

like me, 
For robbing of the Boston bank to the penitentiary. 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 59 

(B) CHARLESTOWN 

I was born in Boston city, 
A place you all know well, 
Brought up by honest parents. 
And the truth to you I'll tell, 
Brought up by honest parents. 
And reared most tenderly. 
Till I became a roving lad 
At the age of twenty-three. 

My character was taken 

And I was sent to jail; 

My friends they tried to clear me. 

But it was of no avail. 

The clerk he read the charges. 

While Russell wrote it down. 

Saying, '^For some noted crime, sir, 

You are bound for Charlestown." 

To see my poor old father 

A-raving at the bar. 

Likewise my kind old mother, 

A-tearing out her hair. 

While tearing out those old gray locks. 

The tears came rolling down 

Saying, ''Son, son, what has thou done? 

You're bound for Charlestown." 

I was shipped on board of an east-bound 

train. 
One dark December day; 



60 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

And every station I'd pass through 
I'd hear the people say — 
''There goes a noted burglar, 
In irons he is bound, 
And for some noted crime, sir, 
He's bound for Charlestown." 

There Kved in Boston city 

A girl that I loved well, 

And if ever I gain my hberty 

Along with her I'll dwell. 

If ever I gain my Uberty 

Bad company I'll shun 

And night-walking and gambhng 

And hkewise all bad rum. 

If you that have your hberty 

Just keep it while you can. 

And act upon the square, my boy 

Obey the laws of man; 

For if you don't you'll surely rue, 

Your fate wiU surely be. 

Six months in the house erect, 

Or the penitentiary. 

24 
(A) THE BUTCHER'S BOY 

In Jersey City where I did dwell 
A butcher's boy I loved so well; 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 61 

He courted me my heart away, 
And now with me he will not stay. 

There is a house in this same town, 
Where my true love goes and sits him down, 
He takes a strange girl on his knee, 
And tells her what he won't tell me. 

^Tis grief, 'tis grief, I'll tell you why. 
Because she has more gold than I; 
Her gold will melt and silver fly. 
She'll see the day she's poor as I. 

I went upstairs to make my bed, 
And nothing to my mother said, 
I took a chair and sit me down. 
With pen and ink I wrote it down, 

On every line I dropped a tear. 
While calling home my Willy dear. 
Her father he came home that night, 
Where, O where has my daughter gone?" 



<( 



He went upstairs, the door he broke. 
And foimd her hanging by a rope. 
He took his knife to cut her down. 
And on her bosom these lines he found: 

"0 what a foolish girl am I 

To kill myself for a butcher's boy. 



62 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

"Go dig my grave both wide and deep, 
Place a marble stone at my head and feet. 
Upon my breast a turtle dove 
To show the world I died for love/' 

(B) THERE IS A TAVERN IN THE TOWN 

There is a tavern in the town, in the town. 

And there my dear love sits him down, sits him down, 

And drinks his wine mid laughter free. 

And never, never thinks of me. 

Fare thee well for I must leave thee. 
Do not let this parting grieve thee. 
And remember that the best of friends must 
part, must part. 

Adieu, adieu, kind friends, adieu, 
I can no longer stay with you, stay with you, 
I'U hang my harp on the weeping willow tree 
And may the world go well with thee. 

He left me for a damsel dark, damsel dark. 
Each Friday night they used to spark, used to spark, 
And now my love once true to me 
Takes that dark damsel on his knee. 

O dig my grave both wide and deep, wide and deep. 
Put tombstones at my head and feet, head and feet, 
And on my breast carve a turtle dove 
To signify I died of love. 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 63 

25 
THE DEATH OF A ROMISH LADY 

There lived a Romish lady 

Brought up in proper array; 
Her mother ofttimes told her 

She must the priest obey. 

"O pardon me dear mother 

I humbly pray thee now 
For unto these false idols 

I can no longer bow/' 

Assisted by her handmaid, 

Her bible she concealed 
And there she gained instruction 

Till God his love revealed. 

No longer would she prostrate 

The pictures decked with gold; 
But soon she was betrayed 

Her bible from her stold. 

"I'll bow to my dear Jesus 

And worship him unseen 
And work by faith unfailing 

The works of men are vain. 

"I can not worship idols 

Nor pictures made by men 
Dear mother use your pleasure 

But pardon if you can." 



64 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

With grief and great veration 
Her mother straight did go 

To inform the Romish clergy 
The source of all her woe. 

The priests was soon assembled 
And for the maid did call. 

They forced her in a dimgeon 
To affright her soul withal. 

The more they strove to affright her 

The more she did endure 
Although her age was tender 

Her faith was firm and siu-e. 

Her chains of gold so costly 

They from the lady took 
And she with all her spirit 

The pride of life forsook. 

Before the priests they brought her 

In hope of her return 
But there she was ordained 

In horrid flames to burn. 

Before the place of torment 
They brought her speedily. 

With Ufted hands to heaven 
She there agreed to die. 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 65} 

There being many ladies ' 

Assembled at that place, 
With lifted hands to heaven 

She begged supporting grace. 

"Weep not ye tender ladies, 

Shed not a tear for me 
Whilst my poor body's bm*ning 

My soul the Lord shall see. 

" Yoiu'selves you need to pity 

On Zion's deep decay. 
Dear ladies, turn to Jesus 

No longer make delay. 



ff 



In comes her raging mother, 
Her daughter to behold; 

And in her hand she brought 
An image decked with gold. 

"O take from me those idols 
Remove them from my sight. 

Restore to me my Bible 
In which I take deUght. 

"Alas, my aged mother 

On my ruin bent. 
It was her that did betray me; 

But I am innocent. 



66 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

"Tormentors, use your pleasure 

And do as you think best. 
I hope my blessed Jesus 

Will take me home to rest/' 

Soon as these words were spoken 

In comes the tyrant of death, 
And kindled up the fire 

To stop her mortal breath. 

Instead of gold and bracelets, 
With chains they bound her fast; 

She cried aloud, "O Lord, give pardon, 
Or else I sink at last. 

"With Jesus and his angels 

For ever I shall dwell. 
God pardon priest and people 

And so I bid farewell." 

26 

JOHNNY AND BETSY 

There was an old woman who lived on the strand, 

And Johnny was her only son, 

And servant Betsy, beauty fair, 

Drew his heart into a snare. 

One evening Johnny took his time 

To tell to her what was in his mind: 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 67 

"0 Betsy, O Betsy, I love you well! 
I love you better than tongue can tell I 
O Betsy, Betsy, I love you dear!'' 

His mother chanced these words to hear. 

Then she resolved within her mind 

To stop these two of their designs. 

Early next morning when she arose 

She says to Betsy, "Put on your clothes. 

Go dress yourself," says she, 

"And wait on me two days or three. 



n 



Then o'er the country they went, 
But Betsy knew not her intent. 
There was a ship lying in the down. 
And to Verginny it was bound, 
Where she sold Betsy across the main. 
And returned safe home to her son again. 

"You're welcome home, dear mother," he says, 
"But where is Betsy behind you stayed?" 
"O son, O son, your love's in vain. 
For we sold Betsy 'cross the main. 
My son, my son," says she, 
"You're bringing scandal on you and me. 
I would rather see your corpse he dead 
Than to marry Betsy, a servant maid." 

"Then your desire you soon shall have, 
If you'd rather see my corpse lie dead 



68 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

Than to marry Betsy, a servant maid!'' 

Then he took sick, very bad. 

No mirth nor music could make him glad. 

They sent for doctors far and near. 

But none of them could Johnny cheer; 

And every doctor tried their skill 

Till at last they did poor Johnny kill. 



And when she saw her son He dead, 
She rang her hands and tore her head. 
Saying, '*If Hfe I once could bring again, 
I'd send for Betsy across the main! 
If Hfe I once could bring again, 
I would send for Betsy across the main! 



yt 



27 

THE SOLDIER 

I once knew a soldier just from the war, 
He courted a lady for honor and for store; 
The lady loved the soldier because he was so bold. 
So great was her fortune it scarcely could be told. 

"Now," said the lady, "I cannot be your wife, 

For fear my wretched father would shortly end your 

Hfe." 
He drew a sword and pistol and hung them by his side 
Saying, "We will get married and who will betide." 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 69 

They went and got married and coming back again, 
They met the wretched father with several armed men. 
*' Let's flee/' said the lady, "for fear we will be killed.'' 
''Hold on," said the soldier, '*at fighting I am skilled.'' 

Up stepped the old man, speaking very free. 
Saying, ''Do you intend to be a daughter unto me. 
Or do you intend to be a soldier's wife? 
Then in this lonesome valley I'll shortly end your life, 



}f 



tt 



Now," said the soldier, "I have no time to tattle, 
I'm only one alone but I'm ready for the battle." 
He drew his sword and pistol and caused them both to 

rattle. 
The lady held the horses while the soldier fought the 

battle. 

The first one he came to he run him through the brain. 
The next one he came to he served him just the same. 
"Hold on," said the old man, "Don't strike so bold, 
And you can have my daughter and ten thousand 
pounds of gold." 

28 

THE FARMER'S BOY 

The sun had set behind the hill across the dreary moor, 
When weary and lame a poor boy came up to a farmer's 
door. 



70 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

''Pray tell to me if any there be to give to me employ, 
To plow and sow, to reap and mow, and to be a farmer's 
boy. 

"My father's dead, my mother's left five children very 

small. 
And what is worse for mother still I'm the eldest of 

them all, 
Though Uttle I be I fear no work if you will me employ. 
To plow to sow, to reap and mow and to be a farmer's 

boy. 

"And if you will not me employ a favor I have to ask. 
Will you shelter me till the break of day from this cold 

winter's blast? 
At the break of day I'll haste away elsewhere to seek 

employ 
To plow, to sow, to reap and mow, and to be a farmer's 

boy." 

The farmer said, "Pray take the lad, no farther let him 

seek." a 

"O yes, dear father," the daughter cried, while tears " 

ran down her cheek. 
Those that will work 'tis hard to want and wander for 

employ. 
To plow, to sow, to reap, to mow, and be a farmer's 

boy. 

In course of time he grew to be a man. This good old 
farmer died, 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 71 

And he left the lad the farm he had and the daughter 

for his bride. 
Now the lad that was the farmer is, he oft times thinks 

with joy 
Of the lucky day he came that way to be a farmer's boy, 
To plow, to sow, to reap and mow, and to be a farmer's 

boy. 

29 

THE RICH YOUNG FARMER 

There was a rich young farmer, 

And he was of high renown, 
He courted a fair and handsome daughter, 

As ever lived in England town. 

When her parents came to know it, 

It grieved their hearts full sore; 
They said they'd send him far over the ocean, 

Where he'd cease to love no more. 

One morning, O one morning. 

One morning just at dawn. 
As bold as a ranger and just like a stranger 

I met my true love a-walking along. 

"Look up, look up, my pretty fair maiden, 

O can't you fancy me?" 
"O no, kind sir, my fancy is a farmer. 

And has lately gone to sea." 



72 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

"Describe him, describe him, 

Describe him mito me; 
For perhaps I saw a sword pass through him, 

As IVe lately been to sea/' 

"He is proper, neat, and handsome, 

He is proper, neat, and tall. 
He has long black hair and he wears it platted. 

Through a gay gold ring doth fall." 

"0 yes, I saw him, and I know him, 

His name is Thomas Hall; 
I saw a cannon ball pass through him. 

And thus, fair lady, your lover did fall." 

She stood wringing her lily white hands, 
As though her heart would break. 

"Hush up, hush up, my pretty fair maiden. 
Perhaps I be the very man." 

She turned around and looked upon him. 

She tiu-ned and looked again. 
She hopped and she flew and she ran unto him. 

And embraced him by the hand. 

They joined their loving hands together. 
And straight to the church did go. 

And married they never must each other. 
Whether their parents were willing or no. 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 73 

30 
THE LOVER'S RETURN 

It was on one munday morning in may 

Down by a flowery garden I chanced for to stray 

I over heard a fair maid with sorrow to complain 
All on the banks of clowdy I am told she doth remain. 

I stepped away unto her I took her with surprise 
She owned she did not now me for I was in disguise 

Oh my handsom fair maid my joy and hearts delight 
How far have you to ramble this dark and rainy night 

Kind sir away to clowdy would you be pleased to show 
Be kind unto a fair miss for there I haf to go 

I am on the search for a young man and lone is his name 
All on the banks of clowdy I am told he doth remain. 

It's on the banks of clowdy on which you boldly stand 
For dont you believe young lone for he will not meet 
you 
O dont you beheve young lone for he is a f aulse young 
man 
So stay with me in the green groves no danger need 
fear. 

If lone he was here this night he would keep me from 
all harm 
But he is in the field of battle dressed in his uniform 



74 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

He is in the field of Battle his foes he doth defy 

He is like the kings of honor he is in the wars to try- 
It has been six months or better since lone left the shore 
A saihng the wide ocian where raging billows rore 
A sailing the wide ocian with horror and great gain 
The ship has been recked as I have been told all on 
the cost of Spain. 

When she heard this dreadful she sunk into dispair 
A ringing of her hands and a taring of her hair 

Saying if lone he is drowned no other will I take 
In some lonesome grove or vaUy I will die for his sake. 

When he beheld her royalty he could no longer stand 

He flew into her arms crying Betsy I am the man 
I am your royal true love the cause of all your pain 
And since we have met on dowdy's banks we never 
shall part again. 

31 

THE PRENTICE BOY 

As low in Cupid's garden for pleasure I did walk 
I heard two loyal lovers most sweetly for to talk 
It was a briske yong lady and her prentice boy 
And in private they were courting and he was all her 
joy 

He said dear honord lady I am your prentice boy 
How ever can I thinke a fair lady to enjoy 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 75 

His cheeks as red as roses his humor kind and free 
She said dear youth if ever I wed I'll surely mary thee. 

But when her parents came this for to understand 
They did this young man banish to some foreign land 
While she lay broken hearted lamenting she did cry 
For my honest charming prentice a maid I'll live and die 

This young man to a merchant a waiting man was 

bound 
And by his good behaviour good fortune there he found 
He soon became his butler which prompted him to faim 
And for his careful conduct the steward he became 

For a ticket in a lottery his money he put down 
And there he gained a prize of twenty thousand pound 
With store of gold and silver he packed up his close 

indeed 
And to England returned to his true love with speed 

He offered kind embraces but she flew from his arms 
No lord duke or nobleman shall ever endure my charms 
The love of gold is cursed great riches I decry 
For my honest charming prentice a maid I'll live and 
and die 

He said dear honord lady I have been in your arms 
This is the ring you gave me for toying in your charms 
You vowed if every you maried your love I should 

enjoy 
Your father did me banish I was your prentice boy 



76 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

When she beheld his features she flew into his arms 
With kisses out of measure she did enjoy his charms 
Then so through Cupid's garden a road to chiu-ch they 

found 
And there in virtuous pleasure in hymen's band was 

bound. 

32 

THE CONSTANT FARMER'S SON 

There was a farmer's daughter near Dublin town did 

dwell, 
So modest, fair and handsome, her parents loved her 

well; 
She was admired by lord and dukes, but all their hopes 

were vain. 
There was but one, a farmer's son, young Mary's heart 

could gain. 

Long time young WilHe courted her and fixed their 

wedding day; 
Her parents both they gave consent, but her brothers 

they did say: 
"There Uves a lord that pledged his word, and if you 

do him shun. 
We will betray and then will slay your constant farmer's 

son." 

There was a fair not far from home, her brothers went 
straightway 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 77 

And asked Willie's company to pass the time away. 
But, mark, returning home at night they swore his 

race was run, 
And with a stake the life did take of her constant 

farmer's son. 

As Mary on her pillow lay she dreamed a dismal dream, 
She dreamt she saw her true love's gore; the blood 

appeared in streams; 
She then arose, put on her clothes, to seek her love did 

run. 
When dead and cold she did behold her constant 

farmer's son. 

The bitter tears ran down her cheeks and mingled with 

his gore, 
She cried in vain to ease her pain and kissed him o'er 

and o'er; 
She gathered green leaves from off the trees to shade 

him from the sun. 
And one night and day was passed away with her 

constant farmer's son. 

But hunger it came creeping on, poor girl she cried with 

woe. 
And for to find his murderers she straightway home did 

go, 

Saying, ''Parents dear, you soon shall hear of a shocking 

deed that's done. 
In yonder vale lies dead and pale my constant farmer's 

son." 



78 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

Then up bespoke her eldest brother, saying, ''Indeed 
it was not me/' 

The same replied her youngest brother and cursed most 
bitterly. 

"Brothers,'' she said, "don't turn so red or try the law 
to shun; 

You did the deed and sore you will bleed for my con- 
stant farmer's son." 

These villains then did own their guilt and for the same 

did die; 
Young Mary fair in deep despair, she never ceased to 

cry; 
Her parents both they vanished away for their span of 

Ufe was run; 
Young Mary cried and of sorrow died for her constant 

farmer's son. 

33 

MOLLIS BOND 

Come all you young men who handle a gun, 
Be warned of shooting after the down sim. 

A story I'll tell you; it happened of late. 
Concerning MoUie Bond, whose beauty was great. 

MoUie Bond was out walking, and a shower came on; 
She sat under a beech tree the showers to shun. 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 79 

Jim Random was out hunting, a-hunting in the dark; 
He shot at his true love and missed not his mark. 

With a white apron pinned around her he took her for 

a swan, 
He shot and killed her, and it was MoUie Bond. 

He ran to her; these words to her he said; 
And a fountain of tears on her bosom he shed. 

Saying, "MolUe, dear Mollie, you're the joy of my life; 
I always intended to make you my wife." 

Jim ran to his uncle with his gun in his hand, 
Saying, "Uncle, dear uncle, I've killed MolUe Bond. 

''With her apron pinned aroimd her, I took her for a 

swan; 
I shot and killed her, and it was MoUie Bond." 

Up stepped his dear uncle with his locks all so gray, 
Saying, ''Stay at home, Jimmie, and do not run away. 

"Stay in your own country till your trial comes on; 
You shall not be molested if it costs me my farm." 

The day of Jimmy's trial Mollie's ghost did appear, 
Saying to this jury, "Jim Random come clear! 

"With my apron pinned around me he took me for a 

swan, 
He shot and killed me and now I am gone." 



80 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

34 
MY FATHER'S GRAY MARE 

Young Roger the miller went courting of late 
A farmer's fair daughter called Kate. 

Her cheeks hke vermilion all painted with love, 
She was buxom and bonny and sweet as a dove. 

Then Roger being greedy, I do declare, 
He spied the nag they called the gray mare. 

"As for your daughter I solemnly swear, 

I won't have your daughter without the gray mare." 

The old man rose up with anger and speed, 

"I thought you'd have married my daughter indeed. 



(t 



But since it is so I am glad it is thus. 
My money once more I'll put up in my purse. 

"As for my daughter I solemnly swear 

You can't have my daughter, no nor the gray mare, 

When six months were ended, or something above 
Young Roger he chanced to meet with his love. 



97 






0,'^ smiling, said Roger, "and don't you know me?" 
If I ain't mistaken, I've seen you," said she. 
"A man of your Ukeness, with long yellow hair. 
Did once come a-courting my father's gray mare." 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 81 

35 
MARY O' THE WILD MOOR 



^Twas on a cold winter's night 

When the wind blew across the wild moor, 
That Mary came wandering home with her child, 
Till she came to her own father's door. 
O father, dear father," she cried, 
Come down and open the door, 
Or the child in my arms will perish and die. 
By the winds that blow 'cross the wild moor. 






}f 



"O why did I leave this dear cot. 

Where once I was happy and free? 
But now I must roam without friends or home, 

No one to take pity on me!" 
Her father was deaf to her cries. 

Not a sound of her voice reached his ear; 
But the watch dog he howled and the village bell 
tolled. 

And the winds blew across the wild moor. 



O how must that old man have felt 

When he came to the door in the morn; 

Poor Mary was dead, but her child was alive. 
Closely pressed in its dead mother's arms. 



82 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

Half frantic he tore his gray hair, 

And the tears down his cheeks they did pour, 
For on that bitter night she had perished and died, 

From the winds that blew 'cross the wild moor. 

The old man in grief pined away. 

And the child to its mother went soon; 
And no one, they say, has Hved there to this day, 

And the cottage to ruin has gone. 
The villagers point to the spot 

Where the ivy hangs over the door. 
Saying, ''There Mary died, once a gay village bride, 

By the winds that blow 'cross the wild moor." 

36 
FATHER GRUMBLE 

Father Gnunble he did say. 

As sure as the moss round a tree. 
That he could do more work in a day 

Than his wife could do in three, three, 

Than his wife could do in three. 

Then Mother Grmnble she did say, 

"O what's the row now? 
You can stay in the house and work. 

And I will follow the plow, plow, 

And I will follow the plow. 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 83 

"But don't forget the jar of cream 
That stands within the frame, frame; 

And don't forget the fat in the pot, 
Or it will go into flame, flame; 

And don't forget the fat in the pot, 
Or it will all go into flame. 

"Don't forget the muley-cow. 

For fear she will go dry, dry; 
And don't forget the little pigs 

That He within the sty, sty; 
And don't forget the little pigs 

That he within the sty. 

"Don't forget the speckled hen. 

For fear she'll lay astray, astray; 
And don't forget the skein of yarn 

That I spin every day, day; 
And don't forget the skein of yarn 

That I spin every day." 

He went to churn the jar of cream 

That stood within the frame, frame; 
And he forgot the fat in the pot. 

And it all went into flame, flame; 
And he forgot the fat in the pot. 

And it all went into flame. 

He went to milk the muley-cow, 
For fear she would go dry, dry; 



84 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

She reared, she kicked, she faunched, she flinched, 

She hit him over the eye, eye; 
She reared, she kicked, she faunched, she flinched, 

She hit him over the eye. 

He went to watch the speckled hen, 

For fear she'd lay astray, astray; 
And he forgot the skein of yam 

That she spim every day; 
And he forgot the skein of yarn 

That she spun every day. 

Old Father Grumble coming in 

And looking very sad, sad, 
Old Mother Grumble clapped her hands 

And said that she was very glad, glad; 
Old Mother Grimible clapped her hands 

And said that she was very glad. 

37 
GUY FAWKES 

I'll tell you a doleful tragedy — 

Guy Fawkes, the prince of sinisters, 

Who once blew up the House of Lords, 
The King and all his ministers; 

That is, he would have blown them up, 
And we would ne'er forget him. 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 85 

His will was good to do the deed, 
If they had only let him. 

Singing bow — wow — wow, 
Whack fol — de — riddle, 
Singing bow — wow — wow. 

Straightway he came from Lambeth side 

And wished the State was undone; 
And crossing over Vauxhall bridge 

That way he came to London; 
That is, he would have crossed the bridge 

To perpetrate his guilt, sir, 
But a trijfling thing prevented him, 

The bridge it was not built, sir. 

And as he searched the dreary vaults 

With portable gas Kght, sir. 
About to touch the powder train 

At the witching hour of night, sir; 
That is, he would have used the gas, 

Had he not been prevented; 
But gas you know, in James's time. 

It hadn't been invented. 

Now, when they caught him in the act, 

So very near the Crown's end, 
They sent straightway to Bow Street for 

That gay old runner Townsend; 
That is, they would have sent for him 



86 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

For danger he's no starter at, 

But Townsend wasn't living then, 

He wasn't born till arter that. 

So then they put poor Guy to death 

For ages to remember; 
And now they kill him every year 

In dreary dark November; 
That is, his effigy, I mean. 

For truth is strange and steady, 
They cannot put poor Guy to death 

For he is dead already. 

38 
WILLIAM REILLY'S COURTSHIP 

'Twas on a pleasant morning all in the bloom of spring 
When as the cheerful songsters in concert sweet did 
sing. 

The primrose and the daisy bespangled every dawn 
In an arbor I espied my dear Coolen Bawn. 

I stood awhile amazed, quite struck with surprise, 
On her with rapture gazed while from her bright eye's 

She shot such kilUng glances my heart away was drawn. 
She ravished all my senses, my fair Coolen Bawn. 

I trembUngly addressed her: "Hail, matchless fair maid! 
You have with grief oppressed me and I am much 
afraid. 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 87 

Except you'll cure my anguish which now is in its dawn, 
You'll cause my sad overthrow, my sweet Coolen 
Bawn/' 

Then with a gentle smile she replied unto me. 

"I cannot tyrannize, dear Willie, over thee. 
My father he is wealthy and gives severe command; 

If you but gain his favor, I'll be your Coolen Bawn." 

In raptures I embrace her; we swore eternal love, 
And nought should separate us except the power 
above. 
I hired with her father and left my friends and land 
That with pleasure I might gaze on my fair Coolen 
Bawn. 

I served him twelve months right faithful and just. 
Although not used to labor, was true to my trust. 

I valued not my wages, I would not it demand. 
For I could Uve for ages with my Coolen Bawn. 

One morning as her father and I walked out alone, 
I asked him for his daughter saying: "Sir, it is well 
known 
I have a well-stocked farm, five hundred pound in hand 
Which V\\ share with your daughter, my fair Coolen 
Bawn." 

Her father full of anger most scornfully did frown. 
Saying, ''Here are your wages. Now, sir, depart 
from this town." 



88 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

Increasing still his anger he bid me quick begone, 
"For none but a rich squire shall wed my Coolen 
Bawn/' 

I went unto his daughter and told her my sad tale. 
Oppressed with grief and anger we both did weep 
and wail. 
She said, "My dearest Reilly, the thought I can't 
withstand 
That in your sorrow you should leave me, your own 
dear Coolen Bawn/' 

A horse I did get ready in the silent night. 

Having no other remedy, we quickly took our flight. 
The horse he chanced to stiunble and threw both along, 

Confused and solely bruised me and my dear Coolen 
Bawn 

Again we quickly mounted and swiftly rode away. 
O'er hills and lofty mountains we travelled night 
and day. 
Her father quickly pursued us with his well chosen 
band. 
And I was overtaken with my fair Coolen Bawn. 

Conunitted straight to prison there to lament and wail, 
And utter my complaints to a dark and dismal jail, 

Loaded with heavy irons till my trial should come on, 
But I'll bear their utmost maUce for my dear Coolen 
Bawn. 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 89 

If it should please kind fortune once more to set me free, 
For well I know my charmer is constant unto me, 

Spite of her father's anger, his cruelty and scorn, 
I hope to wed my heart's deUght, my dear Coolen 
Bawn. 

39 

JACK RILEY 

Jack Riley is my true love's name; 

He lives down by the sea. 
And he is as nice a young man 

As e'er my eyes did see. 

My father he is rich and great. 

Jack Riley he is poor; 
And because I loved my sailor boy 

He would not me endure. 

My mother took me by the hand; 

These words to me did say, 
"If you be fond of Riley, 

You must leave this counteray. 

"For your father says he will take his life, 

And that without delay. 
So you must either go abroad, 

Or shun his company." 



90 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

"0 mother dear, don't be severe. 

Where shall I send my love? 
For if father kills Jack Riley 

I will meet him up above." 

"0 daughter dear, I'm not severe. 

Here is one thousand pounds. 
Send Riley to Amerikay, 

To purchase there some grounds.'' 



NATIVE BALLADS 

AND SONGS 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 93 

40 
THE BATTLE OF POINT PLEASANT 

Let us mind the tenth day of October, 
Seventy-four, which caused woe. 

The Indian savages they did cover 
The pleasant banks of the Ohio. 

Colonel Lewis and some noble Captains, 
Did down to death like Uriah go. 

Alas! their heads are bound up with napkins. 
Upon the banks of the Ohio. 

Seven score lay dead and wounded. 
Of champions who did face the foe; 

By which the heathen were confounded, 
Upon the banks of the Ohio. 

Oh, bless the mighty king of heaven. 
For all his wondrous works below. 

Who hath to us the victory given 
Upon the banks of the Ohio. 

41 

JAMES BIRD 

Sons of pleasure, listen to me, 
And ye daughters, too, give ear, 

You a sad and mournful story 
As was ever told shall hear. 



94 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

Hull, you know, his troops surrendered, 
And defenseless left the West, 

Then our forces quick assembled, 
This invader to resist. 

Among the troops that marched to Erie, 
Were the Kingston volunteers; 

Captain Thomas then commanded 
To protect our West frontiers. 

Tender was the scene of parting — 
Mothers wrung their hands and cried, 

Maidens wept their love in secret, 
Fathers strove their tears to hide. 

But there was one among that number^ 

Tall and graceful in his mien. 
Firm his steps, his looks undaunted — 

Ne'er a nobler youth was seen. 

One sweet kiss he snatched from Mary, 
Begged his mother's prayers once more, 

Pressed his father's hand and left them 
For Lake Erie's distant shore. 

Mary strove to say, ^'Farewell, James!" 
Waved her hand but nothing spoke; 

''Good-bye, Bird! May Heaven protect you." 
From the rest the parting broke. 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 95 

Soon they came where noble Perry- 
Had assembled all his fleet; 
There the gallant Bird enHsted, 
. Hoping soon the foe to meet. 

Where is Bird? The battle rages; 

Is he in the strife or no? 
Now the cannon roar tremendous, 

Dare he meet the fm-ious foe? 

Ah behold him. See! with Perry 

In the selfsame ship he fights; 
Though his messmates fall around him, 

Nothing can his soul affright. 

But, behold, a ball hath struck him! 

See the crimson current flow; 
''Leave the deck/' exclaimed brave Perry. 

''No,'' cried Bird, "I will not go. 

"Here on deck IVe took my station. 

Ne'er will Bird his colors fly. 
I'll stand by the gallant Captain 

Till we conquer or we die!" 

So he fought both faint and bleeding, 

Till our stars and stripes arose, 
Victory having crowned our efforts, 

All triumphant o'er our foes. 



96 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

And did Bird receive a pension? 

Was he to his friends restored? 
No, nor even to his bosom 

Clasped the maid whom he adored. 

But there came most dismal tidings 
From Lake Erie's distant shore; 

Better if poor Bird had perished 
Amid the battle's awful roar. 

"Dearest parents/' said the letter, 
''This will bring sad news to you. 

Do not mourn your first beloved, 
Though this brings his last adieu. 



"I must suffer for deserting 

From the brig Niagara; 
Read this letter, brother, sister. 

'Tis the last you will hear from me. 



ff 



Sad and gloomy was the morning 
Bird was ordered out to die; 

Where is the breast dares not to pity 
Or for him would heave one sigh? 

O he fought so brave at Erie. 

Nobly bled and nobly dared. 
Let his courage plead for mercy — 

Let his precious life be spared! 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 97 

See him march; hear his fetters 
Harsh they clash upon the ear; 

But his step is firm and manly, 
For his breast ne'er harbored fear. 

See, he kneels upon his coffin, 
Sure his death can do no good; 

Spare Him! Hark! O God, they have shot 
him, 
See his bosom streams with blood. 

Farewell, Bird, farewell forever! 

Friends and home youll see no more; 
But his mangled corpse Ues buried 

On Lake Erie's distant shore. 

42 
(A) O JOHNNY DEAR, WHY DID YOU GO? 

In Conway town there did dwell 
A lovely youth I knew full well. 

Ri tu nic a neari 
Ri tu nic a neari na. 

One day this youth did go 
Down in the meadow for to mow. 

He mowed all around, at length did feel 
A pizen serpent bite his heel. 



gS AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

They carried him to Betsy dear, 
Which made her feel so very queer. 

"O Johnny dear, why did you go 
Down in the meadow for to mow?'^ 



O Betsy dear I thought you knowed 
'Twas daddy's hay and must be mowed, 



Now this young man gave up the ghost 
And away to Abraham's bosom post. 

(B) [WOODVILLE MOUND] 

Near Woodville Mound there did dwell 
A lovely youth, I knew him well. 
'Twas Deacon Jones' oldest son, 
Who just riz up from twenty-one. 

Sing fal dum diddle, fal dum a day 
Fal dum diddle dum a day. 

John he went down in the wheatfield 

And a mighty big snake bit him on the heel. 

H* •n V ^ *r •!• •!• •!• 

"0, Dad," said John, "run for my gal; 
I'm going to die, I know I shall." 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 99 

And Dad he went and carried the news 
And here come Sal without her shoes. 

"O John/' said Sal, ''why did you go 
Down in that wheatfield for to mow?" 
"O Sal/' said John, ''I thought you knowed 
That Daddy's wheat had for to be mowed." 

(C) IN SPRINGFIELD MOUNTAIN 

In Springfield Mountain there did dwell 

Come-a-row 
In Springfield Mountain there did dwell 
A lovely couple that I love so well. 

Come-a-rousing-a-tousing-tudan-an-a-die. 

He went out in the meadow for to mow, 
When a garter snake gathered him by the toe. 

He mowed just twice around the field 

When a rattle-snake gathered him by the heel. 

O, he stepped back as he thought best 
Right mto a yaller-jacket's nest. 

"O, Billie dear, why did you go 
Out in the meadow for to mow?" 



"0, Mary dear, I thought you knowed 
'Twas your pa's hay and it had to be mowed. 



jj 



100 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

(D) SPRINGFIELD MOUNTAIN 

Near Springfield Mountain there did dwell 

Turn er ei turn too turn tidinei ay- 
Near Springfield Mountain there did dwell. 
Tumerow. 

Near Springfield Mountain there did dwell 

Turn er ei, etc. 
A loveHe youth was known full well, 

Tumerow. 

This lovelie youth was sixty-one 

Turn er ei, etc. 
And General Jackson's favorite son, 

Tumerow. 

This loveUe youth courting one night 

Tum er ei, etc. 
Got into a tremendous fight 

Tumerow. 

One Sunday morning he did go 

Timi er ei, etc. 
Down in the meadows for to mow. 

Tumerow. 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 101 

43 
(A) THE JEALOUS LOVER 

Way down in the lonely valley, 

Where the violets fade and bloom, 
'Tis there my sweet Lorella 

Lies mouldering in the tomb. 
She did not stay heartbroken, 

Nor by disease she fell, 
But in one moment parted 

From those she loved so well. 

The banners waved above her, 

Shrill was the bugle soimd. 
But strangers came and found her 

Cold, Ufeless on the ground. 

One night when the moon shone brightly, 

And the stars were shining too. 
Into her quiet cottage 

Her jealous lover drew. 
Saying, ''Love, come let us wander 

Amid the fields so gay; 
While wandering we will ponder 

Upon our wedding day." 

Deep, deep into the woodland. 

He drew his love so dear; 
Says she, " 'Tis for you only 



102 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

That I am wandering here. 
The day grows dark and dreary, 

And I'm afraid to stay; 
Of wandering I am weary, 

And we'll retrace my way." 

"Retrace yom* steps? No, never! 

No more this world you roam, 
So bid farewell forever 

To your parents, friends, and home.'' 
"Farewell, my loving parent; 

I ne'er shall see you more; 
Long, long will be my coming 

To the quiet cottage door." 

Down on her knees before him 

She begged him for her life; 
Deep, deep into her bosom. 

He plunged the fatal knife, 
"Dear WiUie, I'll forgive you," 

Was her last dying breath; 
"I never have deceived you," 

She closed her eyes in death. 

(B) THE WEEPING WILLOW 

Way down in yonder valley, 

Where the weeping willows wave, 

There Hes my poor Lurella 
In her cold and silent grave. 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 103 

She died not broken hearted, 

From sickness or despair, 
But in one moment started 

From the friends she loved so fair — 

Down on her knees before him 

She pleaded for her life; 
But deep into her bosom 

He plunged the fatal knife. 

Sajdng, "Your parents will forgive me 

For the deed which I have done; 
For I'm going to leave this coimtry 

Never more for to return." 



44 
YOUNG CHARLOTTE 

Young Charlotte lived on the mountain side 

In a lone and dreary spot; 
No other house for miles around 

Except her father's cot. 

And yet on many a winter's night, 
Young swains were gathered there; 

For her father kept a social board. 
And she was very fair. 



104 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

Her father loved to see her dressed 

Like any city belle; 
She was the only child he had 

And he loved his daughter well. 

On New Year's eve as the sun went down, 

Far looked her wistful eye 
Out from the frosty window pane 

As the merry sleighs passed by. 

In the village fifteen miles away, 

Was to be a ball that night, 
And though the air was piercing cold 

Her heart beat warm and light. 

How brightly beams her laughing eye. 
As a well-known voice she hears; 

And driving up to the cottage door 
Yoimg Charles and his sleigh appears. 

"O daughter dear,'' her mother said, 
''This blanket round you fold; 

It is a dreadful night without, 
You'll catch your death of cold." 

"O no, no!" young Charlotte cried. 
And she laughed Hke a gypsy queen; 

''To ride in blankets muffled up, 
I never will be seen. 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 105 

My silken cloak is quite enough, 

You know it's lined throughout; 
Besides I have my silken scarf 

To tie my neck about." 

Her bonnet and her gloves put on, 

She stepped into the sleigh, 
Rode swiftly down the moimtain side 

And o'er the hills away. 

There was music in the sound of the bells. 

As o'er the hills they go; 
Such a creaking noise the runners make 

As they cleave the frozen snow. 

With muffled face and silent lips 

Five miles at length were passed 
When Charles with few and shivering words 

The silence broke at last. 

"Such a dreadful night I never knew. 

My reins I scarce can hold. 
Fair Charlotte shivering faintly said 

"I am exceeding cold. 



yy 



He cracked his whip, he urged his steed 

Much faster than before. 
And thus five other dreary miles 

In silence they passed o'er. 



106 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

Says Charles, ''How fast the freezing ice 

Is gathering on my brow.'' 
And Charlotte still more faintly said 

"I'm growing warmer now." 

So on they rode through frosty air 

And the gUttering cold starUght, 
Until at last the village lamps 

And the ballroom came in sight. 

Charles drove to the door, he then jimiped out, 

And reached his hand for her. 
Why sit there like a monimient that has no power 
to stir? 

That has no power to stir? 

He called her once, he called her twice; 

She answered not a word. 
He asked her for her hand again, 

But still she never stirred. 

He took her hand in his — O God! 

'Twas cold and hard as stone. 
He tore the mantle from her brow 

Cold sweat upon there shone. 

Then quickly to the dancing hall 

Her lifeless form he bore; 
Fair Charlotte was a frozen corpse 

And spake she nevermore. 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 107 

And then he sat down by her side 

While bitter tears did flow, 
And cried, ''My own, my charming bride, 

You never more will know." 

He twined his arms aroimd her neck 

And kissed her marble brow; 
His thoughts flew back to where she said 

"I'm growing warmer now." 

'Twas then that cruel monster, Death, 

Had claimed her as his own; 
Young Charlotte's eyes were closed for aye, 

Her voice was heard no more. 

He carried her out to the sleigh, 

And with her he rode home; 
And when he reached the cottage door 

O how her parents mourned. 

Her parents mom-ned for their daughter dear, 

And Charles wept o'er the gloom. 
Till at last young Charles too died of grief 

And they both he in one tomb. 

Yoimg ladies, think of this fair girl 

And always dress aright, 
And never venture thinly clad 

On such a wintry night. 



108 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

45 
(A) THE OLD SHAWNEE 

I ask my love to take a walk, 
To take a walk a little way; 

And as we walk we'll sweetly talk 
Of when shall be the wedding day. 

Then only say that you'll be mine, 
And yom* home shall happy be, 

Where the silent waters roll. 
On the banks of the old Shawneec 

She said, "To that I'll ne^er consent," 
And he says, " Yorn- life I'll take." 

"My life you'll take instead of me, 
For I ne'er shall give away." 

He drew a knife across her breast. 

And in anger she did cry, 
"O Willie dear, don't murder me, 

For I am not fit to die.'' 

He took her by her long black hair, 
And he threw her on the ground. 

And drew her to the river side, 
And left her alone to die 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 109 



(B) ON THE BANKS OF THE OLD PEDEE 

I asked my love to take a walk, 

And a walk she took with me. 
As we walked I gently talked 

Of when our wedding day would be. 

Then she said she'd never be mine, 

And her home would never be 
Where the bright waters flow 

On the banks of the old Pedee. 

From my breast I drew a knife. 
And she gave a shrilKng cry, 
O WiUie dear, don't miu-der me. 
For I am not prepared to die." 



tc 



Then I took her lily white hands 

And swimg her roimd and again around. 

Until she fell in the waters cruel, 

And there I watched my true love drown, 

"O father dear, IVe done a deed, 

And a deed it is to me. 
To have drowned my own true love 

On the banks of the old Pedee." 



110 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS " 

46 

THE MAN THAT WOULDN'T HOE CORN 

I'll sing you a song, it won't take long, 
Concerning a man who wouldn't hoe corn. 
The reason why I cannot teU, 
For this young man was always well. 

In the month of May he planted his corn, 

And in July it was knee high. 

In September there came a frost, 

The seed of his corn this yoimg man lost. 

He went to the fence, peeped in with a grin, 
The chick-a-pie weeds were up to his chin. 
The weeds and grass had grown so high, 
It almost made this yoimg man cry. 

Then off to a neighbor's house he goes, 
Coiu-ting, as we aU suppose; 
And in the chat as chance came round, 
She says, "Young man, have you hoed your 
groimd?" 

"O no, my dear, I've laid it by, 
I thought it was no use to try, 
I thought it folly to labor in vain, 
When I saw I could raise no grain." 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 111 

^'Then why so silly as to ask me to wed, 
When you can't earn your own corn bread? 
Single I am and single I'll remain, 
A lazy man I won't maintain." 



"I won't be boimd, I will be free, 

I won't marry a man that don't love me; 

Neither will I act the childish part, 

And marry a man that will break my heart. 



7> 



He hung his head as he went away. 

Saying, ''Young woman, you'U rue the day. 

Rue the day as sure as you're born. 

To give me the mitten because I wouldn't hoe 



corn.'* 



47 
(A) WICKED POLLY 

Young people, who delight in sin, 
I'll teU you what has lately been, 
A woman who was young and fair 
Has lately died in dark despair. 

She would to froHc, dance, and play 
In spite of all her friends could say. 
''I'll turn to God when I get old, 
And then he will receive my soul." 



112 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

On Friday morning she took sick, 
Her stubborn heart began to break 
"Alas, alas, my days are spent! 
Good lord, too late for to repent!" 

She called her mother to her bed; 
Her eyes were rolling in her head. 
"When I am dead remember well 
Your wicked Polly screams in heU! 

"The tears are lost you shed for me. 
My soul is lost I plainly see. 
The flowing wrath begins to roll, 
I am a lost, a ruined soul!" 

She gnawed her tongue before she died, 
She rolled, she groaned, she cried. 
Saying, "Must I burn forevermore 
When thousand, thousand years are o'er?" 

At length master death prevailed. 
Her face turned blue, her language failed. 
She closed her eyes and left this world. 
Poor Polly thought that hell was hers. 

This almost broke her mother's heart 
To see her child to hell depart. 
"My PoUy, O my Polly's dead! 
Her soul is gone, her spirit's fled!" 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 113 
(B) WICKED POLLY 

O young people, hark while I relate 
The story of poor PoUy^s fate ! 
She was a lady young and fair 
And died a-groaning in despair. 

She would go to balls and dance and play 
In spite of all her friends could say; 
^^I'll turn" said she, '^when I am old, 
And God will then receive my soul/' 

One Sabbath morning she fell sick; 
Her stubborn heart began to ache. 
She cries, ''Alas my days are spent! 
It is too late now to repent.'' 

She called her mother to her bed, 
Her eyes were rolling in her head; 
A ghastly look she did assume; 
She cries, ''Alas, I am undone!" 

"My loving father, you I leave; 

For wicked Polly do not grieve; 

For I must burn f orevermore. 

When thousand thousand years are o'er, 

"Your councils I have slighted all, 
My carnal appetite to fill. 
When I am dead, remember well 
Your wicked Polly groans in hell!" 



114 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

She (w)rung her hands and groaned and cried, 
And gnawed her tongue before she died, 
Her nails turned black, her voice did fail, 
She died and left this lower vale. 



48 



(A) JOHNNY SANDS 

A man whose name was Johnny Sands 

Had married Betty Hague, 
And though she brought him gold and lands, 

She proved a terrible plague. 
For O she was a scolding wife, 

Full of caprice and whim. 
He said that he was tired of life. 

And she was tired of him, 

And she was tired of him. 



Says he, "Then I will drown myself. 

The river runs below.'' 
Says she, "Pray do, you silly eK, 

I wished it long ago.'' 
Says he, "Upon the brink I'll stand. 

Do you run down the hiU 
And push me in with all your might." 

Says she, "My love, I will." 

Says she, "My love, I will." 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 115 

''For fear that I should courage lack 

And try to save myself, 
Pray tie my hands behind my back/' 

"I will/' replied his wife. 
She tied them fast, as you may think. 

And when securely done, 
"Now stand,'' says she, "upon the brink, 

And I'll prepare to run. 

And I'll prepare to run." 

And down the hill his loving bride 

Now ran with all her force 
To push him in — he stepped aside 

And she fell in of course. 
Now splashing, dashing, hke a fish, 

"O save me, Johnny Sands." 
"I can't, my dear, though much I wish, 

For you have tied my hands. 

For you have tied my hands." 

(B) JOHNNY SANDS 

A man whose name was Johnny Sands 

Had married Betty Hodge, 
And though she brought him gold and land, 

She proved a terrible pledge, 
For O she was a scolding wife, 

And full of whines and whims. 
He said that he was tired of life 

And she was tired of him. 



116 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 



Says he, ''Then I will drown myself 

In the river that runs below.'' 
Says she, ''Pray do, you silly elf, 

I wished it long ago.'' 
"For fear that I should courage lack 

And try to save my life. 
Pray tie my hands behind my back 

"I will," replied his wife." 



yy 



And now he's standing on the bank, 

She ran with all her force 
To push him in — he stepped aside 

And she fell in of course. 
Now splashing, dashing Uke a fish, 

"0, save me, Johnny Sands." 
"I can't my dear, though much I wish. 

For you have tied my hands." 

49 

FULLER AND WARREN 

Come ye sons of Columbia, your attention I do crave, 

Whilst a sorrowful duty I will tell 

That happened us of late, in our Indiana state, 

Of a hero that none could excel* 

Like Sampson he courted the choice of his life 

And fully intended to make her his wife; 

The golden ring he gave her was an emblem of true love. 

And 'twas carved with the image of a dove. 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 117 

This young couple they agreed to be married in speed; 

This they vowed by the powers above. 

But this fickle minded maid did again agree to wed 

With young Warren, a liver in that place. 

When Fuller came to know he was deprived of his love, 

With a heart full of woe, unto Warren he did go, 

Saying, '^Warren, you have injured me to gratify your 

cause 
By reporting that I left a prudent wife. 
Now acknowledge that you've wronged me, or I will 

break the law, 
Warren, I will rob you of your life.'' 

Then Warren said to Fuller, ''Sir, your question I deny, 

And my heart to your true love it is bound; 

And unto you I say, this is my wedding day, 

In spite of all the heroes in the town." 

Then Fuller in a passion of love and anger bound 

Which at length caused many for to sigh. 

For with one fatal shot he killed Warren on the spot, 

And smiled as he said, ''I am ready now to die.^ 



n 



Then Fuller was condemned by the honorable court, 

And in Warrensburg was sentenced for to die 

The ignominious death to hang above the earth 

Like Haman on the gallows so high. 

The day did arrive, young Fuller was to die. 

Like an angel he did stand for he was a handsome man, 

On his breast he wore the red, white and blue. 



118 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

Ten thousand spectators were smote upon that spot 
Whilst the guards dropped a tear from their eyes, 
Saying, ^^ Cursed is the she that caused this misery. 
She herseK instead of him had ought to die." 
Now here's to all those who have been kind to loving 

wives, 
You should crown them with honors and with light. 
For marriage is a lottery and 'tis few that win the prize, 
So, gentlemen, excuse me, goodnight! 

50 

POOR COINS 

Come all of you young people who lives far and near, 
I'll tell you of a raurder done on the Black Spur. 

They surrounded poor Coins, but Coins got away; 
He went to Eh Boggs' and there he did stay. 

Old EU's son Hughie his life did betray 

By teUing him he'd go with him to show him the way. 

They took up the nine miles spar boys, they made no 

delay, 
Afraid they would miss him and Coins get away. 

When they saw him coming, they lay very still. 
Saying, ''It's money we're after, and Coins we'll kill." 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 119 

They fired on poor Goins, which made his horse run ; 
The shot failed to kill him; George struck him with a 
gun. 

''Sweet heavens, sweet heavens!'' poor Goins did cry, 
''To think of my poor companion, and now I must die." 

And when they had killed him, with him they would not 

stay; 
They then took his money and then rode away. 

I wish you could have been there to hear her poor moan: 
"Here lies his poor body, but where is his poor soul?" 

51 

POOR OMIE 

"You promised to meet me at Adam's spring; 
Some money you would bring me, or some other fine 
thing." 

"No money, no money, to flatter the case, 
We'll go and get married, it will be no disgrace. 

"Come jump up behind me and away we will ride 
To yonder fair city; I will make you my bride." 

She jumped up behind him and away they did go 

To the banks of deep waters where they never overflow. 



120 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

"0 Omie, O Omie, I will tell you my mind; 
My mind is to drown you and leave you behind." 



''O pity! O pity! Pray spare me my life, 
And I will deny you and not be your wife, 



>; 



*'No pity, no pity, no pity have I; 

In yonder deep water your body shall lie/' 

He kicked her and stomped her, he threw her in the 

deep; 
He jumped on his pony and rode at full speed. 



The screams of poor Omie followed after him so nigh, 
Saying, ''I am a poor rebel not fitten to die.^ 



}y 



She was missing one evening, next morning was found 
In the bottom of Siloty below the mill dam. 



Up stepped old Miss Mother, these words she did say, 
James Luther has killed Omie and he has run away. 



iC 



''He has gone to Elk River, so I understand, 
They have got him in prison for kilhng a man. 



€1 



They have got him in Ireland, bound down to the 
ground; 
And he wrote a confession and sent it around. 

** 'Go hang me or kill me, for I am the man 
That drowned little Omie below the mill dam.' '' 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 121 

52 

(A) SILVER DAGGER 

Come all young men, please lend attention 
To these few words I'm going to write; 

They are as true as ever were written 
Concerning a lady fair and bright. 

A young man courted a fair young maiden; 

He loved her as he loved his life, 
And always vowed that he would make her 

His own true and wedded wife. 

But when his parents came to know this, 
They tried to part them day and night. 

Saying, ''Son, O son, don't you be so foolish — 
That girl's too poor for to be your wife." 

This young man fell down on his knees a-pleading, 

''O father, mother, pity me. 
Don't take from me my dearest darling, 

For she is all the world to me." 

But when the young lady came to know this, 
She soon resolved what she would do. 

She wandered forth and from the city. 
Never more her charms to view. 



122 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

She wandered down by a bright flowing river, 

And sat herself beneath a tree. 
She sighed and said, "0 will I ever, 

Will I e'er more my true love see?" 

Then up she picked her silver dagger, 

And pressed it through her snowy white breast. 

She first did reel and then did stagger. 

Saying, '^My true love, you come too late.'' 

This yoimg man being by the roadside heard her; 

He thought he knew his true love's voice. 
He ran, he ran, like one distracted, 

Saying, '^My true love, I fear you're lost." 

He ran up to this dying body, 

Rolled it over into his arms, 
Saying, '' Neither gold nor friends can save you, 

For you are dying in my arms." 

Her two pretty eyes Hke stars she opened. 
Saying, ''My true love, you come too late. 

Prepare to meet me on Mount Zion, 
Where all lover's joys shall be complete." - 

Then up he picked this bloody dagger. 
Pressed it through his aching heart; 

And now, dear friends, may this be a warning 
To all who try to part true love. 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 123 
(B) SILVER DAGGER 

Come sit you down and give attention 
Of these few lines I am going to write. 

'Tis of a comely youth whose name I'U mention 
Who lately courted a beauteous bride. 

But when her parents came to know it, 

They strove, they strove, by night and day 
To keep her from her own dear WiUiam. 
He is poor," they would ofttimes say. 



(C 



She being young and tender hearted, 
Not knowing what she must undergo, 

She wandered far, she left the city. 
Some shady grove and field to view. 

She being alone down by the river, 
All in the shade of a blooming tree, 

She says, "And shall I, shall I ever, 
The wife of my Sweet William be?" 

She then pulled out a silver dagger. 

And pierced it through her snowy white breast, 
Sajdng these words, just as she staggered, 

''Farewell, true love, I'm going to rest." 

He being lone down in the city, 

Hearing the moans this young lady made. 



124 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

He run like one almost distracted, 
Saying, *^Alas, I am imdone/' 

She opened her eyes Uke stars a-drooping; 

She says, ''True love, you have come too late. 
Prepare to meet me on Mount Zion, 

Where all oiu: joys will be complete." 

He then picked up the silver dagger, 
And pierced it through his tender heart, 

Saying, ''Let this be an awful warning 
To all that do true lovers part." 

53 

THE AGED INDIAN 

A himter once built him a cabin 
In the depth of a forest wild, 

And there in the lonely cabin 
He dwelt with his wife and child. 

The smoke from the nearest wigwam 

Came ciu*Kng over the hill. 
It was built from the skins of the panther 

Which gave proof of the hunter's skill. 

The hunter one early morning 

To a distant town had gone 
Leaving his wife and Ida 

At home in the woods alone. 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 125 

Ida's long brown lashes 

Hung over her eyes like silk, 
As sitting down by the window 

She drank her basin of milk. 

Suddenly a long dark shadow 

Came in at the open door 
Shutting out aU the sunhght 

Which fell across the floor. 

As he stood in the open doorway 
The mother too well knew his will 

Was to take her darling Ida 
To his wigwam over the hill. 

He spoke with many a gesture. 

The mother was almost wild, 
When she saw the aged Indian 

Departing with her child. 

He carried her to his wigwam 

That stood just over the hill 
And there with the aged Indian 

Forever she did dwell. 

She taught him to read the Bible, 
And pray to the God that is true; 

He taught her to tie and weave baskets 
Of a gold and azure hue. 



126 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

54 

CALOMEL 

Ye doctors all of every rank 
With their long bills that break a bank, 
Of wisdom's learning, art, and skill 
Seems all composed of calomel. 

Since calomel has been their toast, 
How many patients have they lost. 
How many himdreds have they killed, 
Or poisoned with their calomel. 

If any fatal wretch be sick 
Go caU the doctor, haste, be quick. 
The doctor comes with drop and pill, 
But don't forget his calomel. 

He enters, by the bed he stands. 
He takes the patient by the hand. 
Looks wise, sits down his pulse to feel, 
And then takes out his calomel. . 

Next, tm-ning to the patient's wife, 
He calls for paper and a knife. 
^'I think yoiu* husband would do well 
To take a dose of calomel." 



The man grows worse, grows bad indeed 
^^Go call the doctor, ride with speed. 



)} 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 127 

The doctor comes, the wife to tell 
To double the dose of calomel. 

The man begins in death to groan, 
The fatal job for him is done, 
The soul must go to heaven or hell, 
A sacrifice to calomel. 

The doctors of the present day- 
Mind not what an old woman say, 
Nor do they mind me when I tell 
I am no friend to calomel. 

Well, if I must resign my breath. 
Pray let me die a natural death. 
And if I must bid all farewell. 
Don't hurry me with calomel. 

55 

THE CREOLE GIRL 

Over swamps and alligators I'm on my weary way 
Over railroad ties and crossings, my weary feet did 

stray, 
Until the shades of evening some higher ground I 

gained. 
'Twas there I met a Creole girl on the lakes of Pon- 

chartrain. 



128 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

"Good eve to you, fair maiden, my money does me no 

good; 
If it were not for the alKgators I would stay out in the 

wood/' 
''O welcome, welcome, stranger, although our house is 

plain; 
We never tm:n a stranger out'on the lakes of Ponchar- 

train/' 

She took me to her mother's house and treated me 

quite well, 
Her hair in flowing ringlets around her shoulders fell. 
I tried to paint her beauty, but I found it was in vain, 
So beautiful was the Creole girl on the lakes of Pon- 

chartrain. 

I asked her if she would marry me, she said that never 

could be. 
She said she had a lover, and he was far at sea. 
She said she had a lover and true she would remain, 
Till he came back to her again on the lakes of Pon- 

chartrain. 

''Adieu, adieu, fair maiden, I never will see you more, 
I'll never forget your kindness in the cottage by the 

shore. 
At home in social circles, our flaming bowls we'll drain, 
We'll drink to the health of the Creole girl on the lakes 

of Ponchartrain." 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS, 129 

56 

THE BLUE AND THE GRAY 

A mother's gift to her country's cause is a story yet 

untold, 
She had three sons, three only sons, each worth his 

weight in gold. 
She gave them up for the sake of war, while her heart 

was filled with pain. 
As each went away she was heard to say, "He will 

never return again." 

One lies down near Appomattox, many miles 

away. 
Another sleeps at Chickamauga, and they both 

wore suits of gray. 
'Mid the strains of "Down in Dixie" the third 

was laid away. 
In a trench at Santiago, the blue and the gray. 

She's alone tonight, while the stars shine bright, with 

a heart full of despair. 
On the last great day I can hear her say, "My three 

boys will be there. 
Perhaps they'll watch at the heavenly gates, on guard 

beside their guns. 
Then the mother, true to the gray and blue, may enter 

with her sons." 



130 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

57 

THE GAMBLER 

My father was a gambler, he learnt me how to play, 
My father was a gambler, he learnt me how to play, 
Saying, '^Son, don't go a-begging when you hold the 
ace and tray, 
When you hold the ace and tray." 

Hang me, hang me, and I'll be dead and gone. 
Hang me, hang me, and I'll be dead and gone, 
I wouldn't mind the hangin', it's bein' gone so 
long. 
It's layin' in my grave so long. 

They took me down to old Fort Smith as sick as I 

could be. 
They took me down to old Fort Smith as sick as I 

could be. 
They handed me a letter saying, "Son, come home to 
me," 
Saying, "Son, come home to me." 

My father and my mother and my Kttle sister makes 

three. 
My father and my mother and my Uttle sister makes 

three. 
They all came up to the gallows to see the last of me. 
To see the last of me. 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 131 

They put the rope around my neck and drew me very 

high, 
They put the rope around my neck and drew me very 

high, 
And the words I heard sayin' was, ^'It won't be long 

tiU he'll die. 
It won't be long till hell die." 



58 

THE BAGGAGE COACH AHEAD 

On a dark and stormy night as the train rolled on 

All passengers gone to bed. 
Except a yoxmg man with a babe on his arm 

Sat sadly with bowed down head; 
Just then the babe commenced crying 

As though its poor heart would break. 
One angry man said, "Make that child stop its 
noise. 

For it's keeping us all awake." 
"Put it out," said another, "Don't keep it in here; 

We've paid for our berth and want rest." 
But never a word said the man with the child, 

As he fondled it close to his breast. 
"0 where is its mother? Go take it to her,'* 

One lady then softly said. 
"I wish that I could," was the man's sad reply. 

"But she's dead in the coach ahead." 



132 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

As the train rolled inward, a husband sat in 

tears, 
Thinking of the happiness of just a few 

short years. 
Baby's face brings pictures of a cherished 

hope now dead, 
But baby's cries can't awaken her in the 

baggage coach ahead. 

Every eye filled with tears as the story he told 

Of a wife who was faithful and true; 
He told how he'd saved up his earnings for years, 

Just to build a home for two; 
How when heaven had sent them their sweet little 
babe. 

Their yoimg happy Uves were blest; 
His heart seemed to break when he mentioned her 
name. 

And in tears tried to tell them the rest. 
Every woman arose to assist with the child; 

There were mothers and wives on that train. 
And soon was the Uttle one sleeping in peace, 

With no thought of sorrow or pain. 
Next morn at the station he bade all goodbye, 

"God bless you," he softly said. 
Each one had a story to tell in their homes 

Of the baggage coach ahead. 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 133 

59 

CASEY JONES 

Come all you rounders for I want you to hear 

The story told of an engineer; 

Casey Jones was the rounder's name, 

A heavy right (eight?) wheeler of a mighty fame. 

Caller called Jones about half past four, 
He kissed his wife at the station door, 
Climbed into the cab with the orders in his hand, 
Says, *'This is my trip to the holy landJ 



jy 



Through South Memphis yards on the fly, 
He heard the fore boy say, " YouVe got a white eye." 
All the switchmen knew by the engine moan 
That the man at the throttle was Casey Jones. 

It had been raining some five or six weeks, 
The railroad track was like the bed of a creek. 
They rated him down to a thirty mile gait, 
Threw the south-bound mail about eight hours late. 



Foreman says, ''Casey, you're runnin' too fast. 
You run the block board the last station you passed, 
Jones says, ''Yes, I beUeve we'll make it, though, 
For she steams better than I ever know." 

Jones says, "Foreman, don't you fret; 

Keep knockin' at the fire door, don't give up yet 



>> 



134 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

I'm going to run her tiU she leaves the rail, 
Or make it on time with the Southern mail/' 

Around the curve and down the dump, 

Two locomotives were boimd to bump. 

Foreman hollered, "Jones, it's just ahead. 

We might jump and make it, but we'll all be dead." 

'Twas aroimd this curve he spied a passenger train, 
Rousing his engine he caused the bell to ring; 
Foreman jimiped off, but Jones stayed on — 
He's a good engineer, but he's dead and gone. 

Poor Casey Jones was all right. 

For he stuck to his duty both day and night. 

They loved to hear his whistle and ring of number 

three. 
As he came into Memphis on the old I. C. 

Headaches and heartaches and all kinds of pain 
Are not apart from a railroad train; 
Tales -that are in earnest, noble, and grand. 
Belong to the life of a railroad man. 

60 

THE LADY ELGIN 

Up from the man's cottage. 
Forth from the mansion door. 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 135 

Sweeping across the waters 

And echoing to the shore, 
Caught by the morning breezes, 

Borne on the evening gale, 
Cometh a voice of mourning, 

A sad and solemn wail. 

Lost on the Lady Elgin, 
Sleeping to wake no more. 
Numbered in death three himdred 
Who failed to reach the shore. 

O it's the cry of children 

Weeping for parents gone, 
Children who slept at evening 

But orphans awoke at dawn; 
Sisters for brother weeping. 

Husbands for missing wives, 
Such were the ties dissevered 

With those three himdred lives. 

61 
THE JAMESTOWN FLOOD 

Is it news you ask for, strangers, as you stand and gaze 

around 
At those cold and lifeless bodies lying here upon the 

ground? 
Do you see that lady yonder, with the little girl and 

boy? 



136 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

That's my wife, my darling Minnie, once my house- 
hold pride and joy. 

Just an horn* ago I brought them from the river's fatal 

tide, 
Laid them here where now you see them, all together 

side by side. 
Strangers, if you'll turn to listen to my story long and 

sad, 
You'll confess it is no wonder that today I'm almost 

mad. 

We were seated at the table chatting in a happy mood. 
When we heard a mighty rushing like some great and 

awful flood. 
Nearer! nearer! came the water, tiU at last it reached 

our home, 
O the horror of the moment when we reaUzed oiu* 

doom! 

Not one moment did we tarry, but with cheeks and 

brow aglow 
Climbed we to the topmost chamber for how long I do 

not know. 
Then I clasped my wife and children to my chilled and 

aching heart 
For I saw that soon or later we would surely have to 

part. 

Faster, faster rushed the waters; tighter, tighter grew 
my grasp 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 137 

Till a wave of mud and fury tore both children from 

my clasp 
Then my wife grew faint and trembly, cold and white 

her marble brow, 
One low whisper, scarcely spoken; ''You are all that's 

left me now. 

"Let your arms enfold me, husband, lay your head 

upon my breast, 
O, our children, may he guide them to a place of peace 

and rest; 
May he spare you to me, darling, to protect'' — But 

while she spoke 
Downward rushed a mighty current and my deathlike 

grasp was broke. 

Down she went, my last sweet darling, she my true and 

loving wife. 
She had been my joy and comfort all along the path of 

life. 
Just as in a dream I stood there till at last a shout 

I heard. 
From some men who stood above me, "Grasp the rope, 

we'll help you out." 

And before night's sable ciu^tain spread across the 

angry wave 
I was drawn above and rescued from a cold and watery 

grave. 
But my darling wife and children floated on till one by one 



138 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

They were found and carried to me, but their work on 
earth was done. 

Sad and mournful as I stood there, saw no signs of Ufe 

or breath; 
O'er my heart fell deep dark shadows as I saw them 

cold in death. 
And a flood of thought came o'er me, overwhelming 

mind and heart, 
And my soul cried out within me, "O my loved ones, 

must we part? 

Fare thee well, my wife and children, in my heart 

you'll ever be 
Till I too shall cross the river where we will united be. 
Then we'll have the joy of loving as we never loved 

before. 
Where no hearts are chilled and broken, in the sweet 

forevermore." 

62 

THE MILWAUKEE FIRE 

'Twas the gray of early morning when the dreadful cry 

of fire 
Rang out upon the cold and piercing air; 
Just that Uttle word alone is all it would require 
To spread dismay and panic everywhere. 
Milwaukee was excited as it never was before, 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 139 

On learning that the fire bells all around 

Were ringing to eternity a hundred souls or more 

And the Newhall house was burning to the ground. 

O hear the firebells ringing at the morning's 

early dawn. 
Hear the voices as they give that dreadful cry! 
O hear the wail of terror 'mid the fierce and 

burning flames. 
Heaven protect them for they're waiting there 

to die. 

The firemen worked like demons and did all within 

their power 
To save a Kfe or try to soothe a pain. 
It made the strongest heart sick, for in less than haK 

an hour 
All was hushed and further efforts were in vain. 
When the dread alarm was sounded through the oft. 

condemned hotel 
They rushed in mad confusion every way. 
The smoke was suffocating and blinding them as well';- 
The fire king could not be held at bay. 

At every window men and women wildly would beseech 

For help in tone of anguish and despair; 

What must have been their feehngs where the ladders 

could not reach 
As they felt death's grasp round them everywhere. 
Up in the highest window stood a servant girl alone; 



140 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

The crowd beneath all gazed with bated breath; 
They turned away their faces; there was many a stifled 

groan 
When she jumped to meet perhaps as hard a death. 

A boy stood in a window and his mother was below; 

She saw him, and the danger drawing near; 

With hands upraised to pray for him she knelt down 

in the snow, 
And the stoutest men could not restrain a tear. 
She madly rushed toward the fire and wildly tore her 

hair 
"Take me, God, but spare my pride, my joy.'' 
She saw the flames siurround him and then in dark 

despair 
Said, "God have mercy on my only son." 



63 
THE FATAL WEDDING 

The wedding bells were ringing 

On a moonlight winter's night; 
The church was decorated, 

All within was gay and bright. 
A mother with her baby 

Came and saw the light aglow. 
She thought of how those same bells chimed 

For her three years ago. 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 141 

While the wedding bells were ringing 

And the bride and groom were there, 
Marching up the aisle together 

While the organ pealed an air, 
Speaking words of fond affection, 

Vowing never more to part, 
Just another fatal wedding, 

Just another broken heart. 

*'I'd Uke to be admitted, sir, 

She told the sexton old. 
Just for the sake of baby. 

To protect him from the cold." 
He told her that the wedding 

Was for the rich and grand, 
And with the eager watching crowd 

Outside she'd have to stand. 

She begged the sexton once again 

To let her step inside, 
"For baby's sake you may come in,'' 

The gray-haired man repHed. 
" If anyone knows reason why 

This couple should not wed 
Speak now or hold your peace forever, 

Soon the preacher said. 

"I must object," the woman cried 

With voice so meek and mild, 
''The bridegroom is my husband, 

And this our httle child." 



)} 



142 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 



(I 



What proof have you?'' the preacher said, 
"My infant/' she rephed, 
Then raised the babe and knelt to pray; 
The httle one had died. 

The parents of the bride then took 

The outcast by the hand, 
*'We'll care for you through Ufe," they said, 

"You've saved our child from harm." 
The outcast wife, the bride, and parents 

Then quickly drove away. 
The husband died by his own hand 

Before the break of day. 

No wedding feast that night was spread. 

Two graves were made next day, 
One for the babe, and in the one 

The father soon was laid. 
This story has been often told. 

By fireside warm and bright, 
Of bride and groom and outcast 

On that fatal wedding night. 



SONGS OF CRIMINALS 
AND OUTLAWS 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 145 

64 

(A) JESSE JAMES 

How the people held their breath 
When they heard of Jesse's death, 

And wondered how he came to die; 
For the big reward Uttle Robert Ford 

Shot Jesse James on the sly. 

Jesse leaves a widow to mourn all her life, 

The children he left will pray 
For the thief and the coward 

Who shot Mr. Howard 
And laid Jesse James in his grave. 

Jesse was a man, 
A friend to the poor, 

Never did he suffer a man's pain; 
And with his brother Frank 
He robbed the Chicago bank, 

And stopped the Glendale train. 

Jesse goes to rest 

With his hand on his breast, 

And the devil will be upon his knees; 
He was born one day in the county of Clay, 

And came from a great race. 

Men when you go out to the West, 
Don't be afraid to die; 



146 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

With the law in their hand, 
But they didn't have the sand 
For to take Jesse James aHve. 

(B) JESSE JAMES 

Jesse James was a man, and he had a robber band; 

And he flagged down the eastern bound train. 

Robert Ford watched his eye, 

And he shot him on the sly. 

And they laid Jesse James in his grave. 

Poor old Jesse, poor old Jesse James, 
And they laid Jesse James in his grave. 
Robert Ford's pistol ball. 
Brought him tumbhng from the wall, 
And they laid Jesse James in his grave. 

Jesse James' httle wife 

Was a moaner all her Ufe, 

When they laid Jesse James in his grave. 

She earned her daily bread 

By her needle and her thread, 

When they laid Jesse James in his grave. 

65 

(A) CHARLES GUITEAU 

or 

JAMES A. GARFIELD 

Come all you tender Christians, 
Wherever you may be, 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 147 

And likewise pay attention 

To these few lines from me. 

For the murder of James A. Garfield 

I am condemned to die, 

On the thirtieth day of June 

Upon the scaffold high. 

My name is Charles Guiteau, 
My name I'll ne'er deny. 
I leave my aged parents 
In sorrow for to die. 
But Kttle did they think, 
While in my youthful bloom, 
I'd be taken to the scaffold 
To meet my earthly doom. 

'Twas down at the station 
I tried to make my escape. 
But Providence being against me 
There proved to be no show. 
They took me off to prison 
While in my youthful bloom 
To be taken to the scaffold 
To meet my earthly doom. 

I tried to be insane 
But I found it ne'er would do. 
The people were all against me, 
To escape there was no clue. 
Judge Cox, he read my sentence. 



148 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

His clerk he wrote it down, 
I'd be taken to the scaffold 
To meet my earthly doom. 

My sister came to see me, 

To bid a last farewell. 

She threw her arm aroimd me 

And wept most bitterly. 

She says, "My darUng brother, 

This day you must cruelly die 

For the murder of James A. Garfield 

Upon the scaffold high.'' 



(B) THE DEATH OF BENDALL 

Come all ye tender Christians and hearken unto me, 
And kindly pay attention to these few words from me. 
For the murder of yoimg Bendall I am condemned to 

die; 
On the fourteenth of November I mount the gallows 

high. 

My name is J. S. Birchell, my name I'll never 

deny. 
I leave my aged parents in sorrow for to die; 
It's Uttle did I think when in my childhood home, 
I'd be taken to the scaffold to meet my fatal 

doom. 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 149 

Now Bendall he was young and in the prime of life, 
To come out here to Canada to lead an honest life; 
But Birchell he betrayed him, he led him to the swamp, 
And there he drew his pistol and Bendall he did drop. 

My wife she came to see me, to bid her last farewell. 
She threw her arms around me and wept most bitterly; 
Said she, "My darling husband, tomorrow you must die 
For the murder of young Bendall you mount the scaf- 
fold high.'' 

He tried to play off innocent, but he found it was no go. 
The people turned against him and proved to give no 

show. 
And when those words were spoken, those words "Thy 

will be done," 
The trap door, it was opened, and Birchell he was hung. 

66 

SAM BASS 

Sam Bass was born in Indiana, it was his native home, 
And at the age of seventeen young Sam began to roam. 
Sam first came out to Texas a cowboy for to be, — 
A kinder-hearted fellow you seldom ever see. 

Sam used to deal in race stock, one called the Denton 

mare. 
He matched her in scrub races, and took her to the 

fair. 



150 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

Sam used to coin the money and spent it just as 

free, 
He always drank good whiskey wherever he might be. 

Sam left the Collins ranch in the merry month of May 
With a herd of Texas cattle the Black Hills for to see, 
Sold out in Custer City and then got on a spree, — 
A harder set of cowboys you seldom ever see. 

On their way back to Texas they robbed the U. P. 

train, 
And then split up in couples and started out again. 
Joe ColUns and his partner were overtaken soon, 
With all their hard-earned money they had to meet 

their doom. 

Sam made it back to Texas all right side up with care; 
Rode into the town of Denton with all his friends to 

share. 
Sam's Hfe was short in Texas; three robberies did he do, 
He robbed all the passenger, mail, and express cars too. 

Sam had four companions — four bold and daring lads — 
They were Richardson, Jackson, Joe ColHns, and Old 

Dad; 
Four more bold and daring cowboys the rangers never 

knew. 
They whipped the Texas rangers and ran the boys in 

blue. 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 151 

Sam had another companion, called Arkansas for 

short, 
Was shot by a Texas ranger by the name of Thomas 

Floyd; 
O, Tom is a big six-footer and thinks he's mighty fly. 
But I can teU you his racket, — he's a deadbeat on the 

sly. 

Jim Mm*phy was arrested, and then released on bail; 
He jimiped his bond at Tyler and then took the train 

for Terrell; 
But Mayor Jones had posted Jim and that was all a 

stall, 
^Twas only a plan to capture Sam before the coming 

of fall. 

Sam met his fate at Round Rock, July the twenty- 
first. 

They pierced poor Sam with rifle balls and emptied out 
his purse. 

Poor Sam he is a corpse and six foot under clay. 

And Jackson's in the bushes trying to get away. 

Jim had borrowed Sam's good gold and didn't want to 

pay, 
The only shot he saw was to give poor Sam away. 
He sold out Sam and Barnes and left their friends to 

mourn, — 
O what a scorching Jim will get when Gabriel blows 

his horn. 



152 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

And so he sold out Sam and Barnes and left their 

friends to mourn, 
O what a scorching Jim will get when Gabriel blows 

his horn. 
Perhaps he's got to heaven, there's none of us can say, 
But if I'm right in my surmise he's gone the other way. 

67 . 

JACK WILLIAMS 

I am a boatman by trade, 

Jack Wilhams is my name, 
And by a false deluding girl 

Was brought to grief and shame. 

On Chatton street I did reside, 
Where the people did me know; 

I fell in love with a pretty pretty girl, 
She proved my overthrow. 

I took to robbing night and day. 
All to maintain her fine and gay. 

What I got I valued not 

But I gave to her straightway. 

At last to Newgate I was brought, 
Bound down in irons strong. 

With rattUng chains around my legs. 
She longed to see me hang. 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 153 

I wrote a letter to my love 
Some comfort for to find. 
Instead of proving a friend to me 
She proved to me unkind. 

And in a scornful manner said 

"I hate your company, 
And as you have made your bed, young man, 

Down on it you may Ue." 

There is a heaven above us all 
And it proved kind to me; 
^ I broke my chains and scaled the walls, 

And gained sweet Uberty. 

Now I am at hberty, 

A solemn vow I'll take; 
I'll shun all evil company 

For that false woman's sake. 



68 

YOUNG McFEE 

Come all my friends and listen to me. 
While I relate a sad and mournful history. 
On this day I'll tell to thee 
The story of young McFee. 



154 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

I scarce had reached to my fifth year 

Before my father and mother dear 

Both in their silent graves were laid 

By He whom first their beings gave. 

I took imto myself a wife. 

She'd be Uving yet, there is no doubt, 

If I had not met Miss Hattie Stout. 

My wife was lying on the bed 

When I approached her and said, 

"Dear wife, here is some medicine I have brought, 

That I for you this day have bought. 

Pray take it, do, it will cure you 

Of those vile fits. Pray take it, do." 

She gave to me one loving look 

And in her mouth the poison took. 

Down on her bed low with her babe, 

Down to her last long sleep she laid. 

I fearing that she was not dead 

My hands upon her throat I laid. 

And there such deep impression made 

That her soul from sorrow quicker fled, 

And my heart was filled with woe. 

I cried, "O whither shall I go? 

How can I leave this mournful place, 

This world again how can I pace? 

Had I ten thousand pounds, I'd give 
To bring her back again to Hve, 
To bring her back again to Kfe, 
My dear, my darling murdered wife." 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 155 

69 

MY BONNY BLACK BESS 

Let the lover his mistress's beauty rehearse, 
And laud her attractions in languishing verse; 
Be it mine in rude strain but with truth to express 
The love that I bear to my Bonny Black Bess. 

From the West was her dam, from the East was her 

sire; 
From the one came her swiftness, the other her fire; 
No peer of the realm better blood can possess 
Than flows in the blood of my Bonny Black Bess. 

Look! Look! how that eyeball glows bright as a brand, 
That neck proudly arching, those nostrils expand; 
Mark that wide flowing mane, of which each silky tress 
Might adorn prouder beauties, though none Hke Black 
Bess. 

Mark that skin sleek as velvet and dusky as night, 

With its jet undisfigured by one lock of white. 

That throat branched with veins, prompt to charge or 

caress. 
Now is she not beautiful, bonny Black Bess? 

Over highway and byway, in rough or smooth weather, 
Some thousands of miles have we journeyed together; 



156 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

Our couch the same straw, our meals the same mess, 
No couple more constant than I and Black Bess. 

By moonlight, in darkness, by night and by day 
Her headlong career there is nothing can stay; 
She cares not for distance, she knows not distress. 
Can you show me a courser to match with Black Bess? 

Once it happened in Cheshire, near Durham, I popped 
On a horseman alone whom I suddenly stopped; 
That I lightened his pockets you'll readily guess — 
Quick work makes Dick Turpin when mounted on 
Bess. 

Now it seems the man knew me: "Dick Turpin,'' said 

he, 
"You shall swing for this job, as you Uve, d'ye see?'' 
I laughed at his threats and his vows of redress — 
I was sure of an ahbi then with Black Bess. 

Brake, brook, meadow, and ploughed field Bess fleetly 

bestrode; 
As the crow wings his flight we selected our road. 
We arrived at Hough Green in five minutes or less, 
My neck it was saved by the speed of Black Bess. 

Stepping carelessly forward I lounge on the green. 
Taking excellent care that by all I am seen; 
Some remarks on time's flight to the squires I address; 
But I say not a word of the flight of Black Bess. 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 157 

I mention the hour — it is just about four, 
Play a rubber at bowls, think the danger is o'er, 
When athwart my next game Uke a checkmate in chess 
Comes the horseman in search of the rider of Bess. 

What matter details? Off with triumph I came. 
He swears to the hour and the squires swear the same. 
I had robbed him at four, while at four, they profess 
I was quietly bowling — all thanks to Black Bess. 

Then one halloo, boys, one loud cheering halloo, 
For the swiftest of coursers, the gallant, the true, 
For the sportsman inborn shall the memory bless 
Of the horse of the highwaymen, Bonny Black Bess, 

70 

TURPIN AND THE LAWYER 

As Turpin was riding across a moor, 
There he saw a lawyer riding on before. 
Turpin riding up to him, said, '^ Are you not afraid 
To meet Dick Turpin, that mischievous blade?'' 

Singing Eh ro, Tmrpin I ro. 

Says Turpin to the lawyer for to be cute, 

''I hid my money into my boot." 

Says the lawyer to Turpin, *'He can't find mine, 

For I hid it in the cape of my coat behind." 



158 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

They rode along together to the foot of the hill, 
When Turpin bid the lawyer to stand still, 
Saying, ''The cape of your coat it must come off, 
For my horse is in want of a new saddle-cloth.'^ 

Turpin robbed the lawyer of all his store. 
He told him to go home and he would get more, 
"And the very first town that you come in. 
You can tell them you was robbed by Dick 
Turpin." 

71 
JACK DONAHOO 

Come all you bold imdaimted men, you outlaws of 

the day. 
It's time to beware of the ball and chain and also 

slavery. 
Attention pay to what I say, and verily if you do, 
I will relate you the actual fate of bold Jack Donahoo. 

He had scarcely landed as I tell you, upon Austraha's 

shore. 
Than he became a real highwayman, as he had been 

before. 
There was Underwood and Mackerman, and Wade 

and Westley too, 
These were the four associates of bold Jack Donahoo. 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 159 

Jack Donahoo who was so brave, rode out that after- 
noon, 

Knowing not that the pain of death would overtake 
him soon. 

So quickly then the horse poKce from Sidney came 
to view; 

"Begone from here, you cowardly dogs," says bold 
Jack Donahoo. 

The captain and the sergeant stopped then to decide. 

"Do you intend to fight us or imto us resign?" 

"To surrender to such cowardly dogs is more than 

I will do. 
This day I'll fight if I lose my life," says bold Jack 

Donahoo. 

The captain and the sergeant the men they did divide; 
They fired from behind him and also from each side; 
It's six poUce he did shoot down before the fatal ball 
Did pierce the heart of Donahoo and cause bold Jack 
to fall. 

And when he fell he closed his eyes, he bid the world 

adieu; 
Come, all you boys, and sing the song of bold Jack 

Donahoo. 



160 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

72 
CAPTAIN KIDD 

''My parents taught me well, as I sailed, as I sailed, 
To shun the gates of hell as I sailed. 
I cursed my father dear, and her that did me bear, 
And so wickedly did swear, as I sailed, as I sailed, 
And so .wickedly did swear, as I sailed. 

"I'd a Bible in my hand, when I sailed, when I sailed. 
But I simk it in the sand as I sailed. 
I made a solenm vow, to God I would not bow. 
Nor myself one prayer allow, when I sailed, when I 
sailed, 
Nor myself one prayer allow, when I sailed. 

"I murdered WiUiam Moore as I sailed, as I sailed, 
And left him in his gore as I sailed. 
And being cruel still, my gunner did I kill. 
And much precious blood did spill, as I sailed, as 
I sailed. 
And much precious blood did spill as I sailed. 

"My name was Robert Kidd as I sailed, as I sailed, 
My name was Robert Kidd, as I sailed. 
My name was Robert Kidd, God's laws I did forbid, 
And so wickedly I did, as I sailed, as I sailed, 
And so wickedly I did as I sailed!'' 



WESTERN BALLADS 
AND SONGS 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 163 

73 

THE TEXAS RANGERS 

Come all you Texas Rangers wherever you may be, 
I'll tell you of some trouble which happened unto me. 

My name 'tis nothing extra, the truth to you I'U tell, 
Come all you jolly Rangers, I'm sure I wish you well. 

r — 

It was the age of sixteen I joined the royal band, 
We marched from San Antonio, unto the Rio Grande. 

Our captain he informed us, perhaps he thought 

'twas right, 
Before we reached the station, he was sure we would 

have to fight. 

It was one morning early, our captain gave command, 
"To arms, to arms," he shouted, "and by your horses 
stand." 

We heard those Indians coming, we heard them give 

their yell, 
My feeUngs at that moment no human tongue can tell. 

We saw their smoke arising, it almost reached the 

sky, 
My feelings at that moment, now is my time to die. 



164 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

We saw those Indian's coming, their arrows around us 

hailed, 
My heart it sank within me, my courage ahnost failed. 

We fought them full nine hours until the strife was 

o'er. 
The like of dead and wounded, I never saw before. 

Five hundred as noble Rangers as ever served the west, 
We'll bury those noble Rangers, sweet peace shall be 
their rest. 

I thought of my poor mother, those words she said 

to me, 
"To you they are all strangers, you had better stay 

with me." 

I thought she was old and childish, perhaps she did 

not know, 
My mind was bent on roving and I was boimd to go. 

Perhaps you have a mother, Ukewise a sister too, 
Perhaps you have a sweetheart to weep and mourn 
for you. 

If this be yoiu* condition I advise you to never roam, 
I advise you by experience you had better stay at 
home. 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 165 

74 

THE LITTLE OLD SOD SHANTY ON THE CLAIM 

I am looking rather seedy now, 

While holding down my claim, 

And my victuals are not always served the best; 

And the mice play slyly romid me. 

As I nestle down to sleep 

In my little old sod shanty in the West. 

The hinges are of leather, and the windows have 

no glass 
While the board roof lets the howHng blizzard in, 
And I hear the hungry coyote 
As he sneaks up through the grass 
Around the Httle old sod shanty on my claim. 

Yet I rather Kke the novelty of Kving in this way, 

Though my bill of fare is always rather tame. 

But I'm as happy as a clam 

On this land of Uncle Sam's, 

In my httle old sod shanty on my claim. 

But when I left my Eastern home, a bachelor so gay. 

To try to win my way to wealth and fame, 

I httle thought that Fd come down to burning twisted 

hay 
In my little old sod shanty on my claim. 



166 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

75 

COWBOY SONG 

One night as I lay on the prairie 
And looked at the stars in the sky, 

I wondered if ever a cowboy 
Would drift to that sweet Bye and Bye. 

The trail to that bright mystic region 
Is narrow and dim, so they say; 

But the one that leads down to perdition 
Is staked and is blazed all the way. 

They say that there'll be a great roundup, 
Where cowboys Hke "dogies'' wiU stand. 

Cast out by those riders from heaven 
Who are posted and know every brand. 

I wonder, was there ever a cowboy 
Prepared for the great Judgment Day, 

Who could say to the boss of the riders, 
^^I'm ready to be driven away.'' 

They say he will never forsake you, 
That he notes every action and look. 

But for safety you'd better get branded 
And have your name in his great book. 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 167 

For they tell of another great owner 
Who is nigh overstocked, so they say, 

But who always makes room for the sinner 
Who strays from the bright narrow way. 

76 

THE OLD CHISHOLM TRAIL 

Come along, boys, and listen to my tale, 

I'll tell you of my troubles on the old Chisholm trail. 

Coma ti yi youpy, youpy ya, youpy ya, 
Coma ti yi youpy, youpy ya. 

I started up the trail October twenty-third. 
I started up the trail with the 2-U herd. 

Oh, a ten dollar hoss and a forty doUar saddle, — 
And I'm goin' to punchin' Texas cattle. 

I woke up one morning on the old Chisholm trail, 
Rope in my hand and a cow by the tail. 

I'm up in the mornin' afore daylight 
And afore I sleep the moon shines bright. 

Old Ben Bolt was a blamed good boss. 

But he'd go to see the girls on a sore-backed hoss. 



168 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

Old Ben Bolt was a fine old man 

And you'd know there was whiskey wherever he'd land. 

My hoss throwed me off at the creek called Mud, 
My hoss throwed me off roimd the 2-U herd. 

Last time I saw him he was going cross the level 
A-kicking up his heels and a-running like the devil. 

It's cloudy in the West, a-looking hke rain. 
And my damned old slicker's in the wagon again. 

Crippled my hoss, I don't know how, 
Ropin' at the horns of a 2-U cow. 

We hit Caldwell and we hit her on the fly. 
We bedded down the cattle on the hill close by. 

No chaps, no slicker, and it's pouring down rain. 
And I swear by god, I'll never night-herd again. 

Feet in the stirrups and seat in the saddle, 
I himg and rattled with them long-horn cattle. 

Last night I was on guard and the leader broke the 

ranks, 
I hit my horse down the shoulders and I spurred him 

in the flanks. 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 169 

The wind commenced to blow, and the rain began to 

fall, 
Hit looked, by grab, Hke we was goin' to lose 'em all. 

I jumped in the saddle and grabbed holt the horn, 
Best blamed cow-puncher ever was born. 

I popped my foot in the stirrup and gave a Uttle yell. 
The tail cattle broke and the leaders went to hell. 

I don't give a damn if they never do stop; 
I'll ride as long as an eight-day clock. 

Foot in the stirrup and hand on the horn. 
Best damned cowboy ever was born. 

I herded and I hollered and I done very well, 
Till the boss said, ''Boys, just let 'em go to hell." 

Stray in the herd and the boss said kill it. 
So I shot him in the rump with the handle of the 
skillet. 

We rounded 'em up and put 'em on the cars. 
And that was the last of the old Two Bars. 

Oh it's bacon and beans 'most every day, — 
I'd as soon be a-eatin' prairie hay. 



170 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

I'm on my best horse and I'm goin' at a rim, 
I'm the quickest shootin' cowboy that ever pulled a 
gun. 

I went to the wagon to get my roll, 

To come back to Texas, dad-burn my soul. 

t went to my boss to draw my roll. 

He had figgered it out I was nine dollars in the hole. 

I'll sell my outfit just as soon as I can, 
I won't pimch cattle for no damned man. 

Goin' back to town to draw my money, 
Goin' back home to see my honey. 

With my knees in the saddle and my seat in the sky, 
I'll quit punching cows in the sweet by and by. 

Coma ti yi youpy, youpy ya, youpy ya, 
Coma ti yi youpy, youpy ya. 

77 

THE DYING COWBOY 

As I walked through Tom Sherman's bar-room, 

Tom Sherman's bar-room on a bright summer's day. 

There I spied a handsome young cowboy 

All dressed in white Unen as though for the grave. 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 171 

Beat your drums lowly, and play your fifes slowly, 
Play the dead march as you bear me along, 

Take me to the graveyard and lay the sod o'er me. 
For I'm a dying cowboy and know IVe done 
wrong. 



*'I know by your appearance you must be a cowboy, 
These words he said as I came passing by, ^ 

"Come sit down beside me, and hear my sad story, 
I'm shot through the breast and know I must die. 



19 



t( 



Once in my saddle I used to look handsome, 
Once in my saddle I used to feel gay, 
I first went to drinking, then went to gambling, 
Got into a fight which ended my day. 

"Go and tell my gray-haired mother. 

Break the news gently to sister dear. 
But never a word of this place must you mention 

When a crowd gathers round you, my story to hear.'' 

78 

BURY ME NOT ON THE LONE PRAIRIE 

"0 bury me not on the lone prairie," 
These words came slowly and mournfully 
From the palUd Ups of a youth who lay 
On his cold damp bed at the close of day. 



172 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

'^O bury me not on the lone prairie 
Where the wild coyote will howl o'er me, 
Where the cold wind weeps and the grasses wave; 
No sunbeams rest on a prairie grave.'' 

He has wasted and pined till o'er his brow 
Death's shades are slowly gathering now; 
He thought of his home with his loved ones nigh, 
As the cowboys gathered to see him die. 

Again he Ustened to well known words, 
To the wind's soft sigh and the song of birds; 
He thought of his home and his native bowers. 
Where he loved to roam in his childhood hours. 

^'I've ever wished that when I died. 
My grave might be on the old hillside. 
Let there the place of my last rest be — 
O bury me not on the lone prairie! 

" O'er my slumbers a mother's prayer 
And a sister's tears will be mingled there; 
For 'tis sad to know that the heart-throb's o'er, 
And that its fountain will gush no more. 

**In my dreams I say" — but his voice failed there; 
And they gave no heed to his dying prayer; 
In a nariow grave six feet by three. 
They buried him there on the lone prairie. 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 173 

May the light winged butterfly pause to rest 
O^er him who sleeps on the prairie's crest; 
May the Texas rose in the breezes wave 
O'er him who sleeps in a prairie's grave. 

And the cowboys now as they roam the plain, 

(For they marked the spot where his bones have lain) 

Fling a handful of roses over his grave, 

With a prayer to him who his soul will save. 

79 

I WANT TO BE A COWBOY 

I want to be a cowboy and with the cowboys stand, 
Big spurs upon my bootheels and a lasso in my hand; 
My hat broad brimmed and belted upon my head 

I'll place, 
And wear my chaparajos with elegance and grace. 

The first bright beam of sunlight that paints the east 

with red 
Would call me forth to breakfast on bacon, beans, 

and bread; 
And then upon my broncho so festive and so bold 
I'd rope the frisky heifer and chase the three year old. 

And when my work is over to Cheyenne then I'll head, 
Eill up on beer and whiskey and paint the damn town 
red. 



174 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

I'll gallop through the front streets with many a 

frightfull yell; 
ril rope the slant old heathen and yank them straight 

to hell. 



80 



WHOOPEE TI YI YO, GIT ALONG LITTLE 

DOGIES 

As I walked out one morning for pleasure, 

I spied a cow-puncher aU riding alone ; 

His hat was thro wed back and his spurs was a-jingling, 

As he approached me a-singin' this song. 

Whoopee ti yi yo, git along little dogies, 
It's your misfortune, and none of my own, 
Whoopee ti yi yo, git along little dogies, 
For you know Wyoming will be your new home. 

Early in the spring we round up the dogies, 
Mark and brand and bob off their tails; 
Round up our horses, load up the chuck-wagon. 
Then throw the dogies upon the trail. 

It's whooping and yelling and driving the dogies; 
Oh, how I wish you would go on ; 
It's whooping and punching and go on little dogies, 
For you know Wyoming will be your new home. 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 175 

Some boys goes up the trail for pleasure, 
But that's where you get it most awfully wrong; 
For you haven't any idea the trouble they gave us 
While we go driving them along. 

When the night comes on and we hold them on the 

bedground, 
These Uttle dogies that roll on so slow; 
Roll up the herd and cut out the strays, 
And roll the Uttle dogies that never rolled before. 

Your mother she was raised way down in Texas, 
Where the jimson weed and sand-burrs grow; 
Now we'll fill you up on prickly pear and choUa 
Till you are ready for the trail to Idaho. 



Oh you'll be soup for Uncle Sam's Injuns; 
''It's beef, heap beef," I hear them cry. 
Git along, git along, git along little dogies, 
You're going to be beef steers by and by. 

81 
CHEYENNE BOYS 

Come all you pretty girls and listen to my noise, 
I'll tell you not to marry the Cheyenne boys. 
For if you do a portion it will be ; 
Cold butter milk and Johnnie cake is all you'll see, 
Cold butter milk and Johnnie cake is all you'll see. 



176 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

Theyll take you down to a sandy hill, 

Take you down contrary to your will; 

Put you down in some lonesome place, 

And that's just the way with the Cheyenne race, 

And that's just the way with the Cheyenne race. 

When they go to church I'll tell you what they wear, 

An old gray coat all covered with hair, 

An old gray coat all torn down, 

A stove-pipe hat more rim than crown, 

A stove-pipe hat more rim than crown. 

When they go in, down they set, 
Take out their handerchief and wipe off the sweat. 
Look at all the pretty girls and then begin to laugh, 
And roll arovmd their eyes Uke a dying caU, 
And roU aroimd their eyes Hke a dying caK. 

82 
BREAKING IN A TENDERFOOT 

'Twas then I thought I'd have some fun, 
And see how cowpunching was done; 
So when the roundups had begun 
I tackled a cattle king. 

Says he, ''My foreman's here in town; 
He stops at Dyer's, his name's Brown." 
We started for the ranch next day; 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 177 

The foreman jollied me all the way, 
^'Cowpunching was only play/' 

"'Twas just like drifting with the tide/' 
All I'd have to do was to ride; 
But that old sinner, how he lied, 

didn't he have his gall! 

They saddled me up on an old gray hack. 
With a great big ^'set-fast" on his back, 
And padded him up with a gunny sack, 
They used my bedding all. 

First he was up and then he was down. 
Jumped up in the air and tiu-ned around. 
And when at last I hit the ground, 

1 had an awful fall. 

They picked me up and carried me in. 
And rubbed me down with a rolling pin^ 
'* That's the way we all begin. 
You've done well," says Brown. 

"If by tomorrow you don't die. 
We'll give you another horse to try." 
*^0 won't you let me walk?" says I. 
Says Brown, ''Yes, into town." 

They gave me charge of the cavvy herd. 
And told me not to work too hard, 



178 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

That all I had to do was guard, 
Those cattle from gettin' away. 

I had three hundred and sixty head, 
And I sometimes wished that I was dead; 
Sometimes my horse would fall, 
And I'd go on hke a cannon ball. 

So before you go cowpunching. 

Kiss your wife, 

Get a heavy insurance on your life, 

Then cut your throat with a carving knife, 

This is the only way. 

83 

STARVING TO DEATH ON A GOVERNMENT 

CLAIM 

Frank Baker's my name, and a bachelor I am. 
I'm keeping old batch on an elegant plan, 
You'U find me out west in the county of Lane, 
A-starving to death on a government claim. 

My house is constructed of natiu-al soil, 
The walls are erected according to Hoyle, 
The roof has no pitch, but is level and plain. 
And I never get wet till it happens to rain. 

Hurrah for Lane county, the land of the free, 
The home of the grasshopper, bed-bug, and flea, 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 179 

I'll holler its praises, and sing of its fame, 
While starving to death on a government claim. 

How happy I am as I crawl into bed. 

The rattlesnakes rattling a tune at my head, 

While the gay Httle centipede, so void of all fear, 

Crawls over my neck, and into my ear; 

And the gay little bed-bug so cheerful and bright. 

He keeps me a-going two-thirds of the night. 

My clothes are all ragged, my language is rough, 
My bread is case-hardened, both solid and tough, 
The dough it is scattered all over the room. 
And the floor would get scared at the sight of a broom. 

The dishes are scattered all over the bed, 
All covered with sorghum, and government bread, 
Still I have a good time, and I live at my ease. 
On common sop sorghum, an' bacon an' cheese. 

How happy I am on my government claim, 
I've nothing to lose, I've nothing to gain, 
I've nothing to eat and I've nothing to wear. 
And nothing from nothing is honest and fair. 

Oh, here I am safe, so here I will stay, 
My money's all gone, and I can't get away. 
There's nothing to make a man hard and profane, 
Like starving to death on a government claim. 



180 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

Now come on to Lane county, there's room for you all, 
Where the wind never ceases, and the rains never fall, 
Come join in our chorus to sing for its fame, 
You sinners that're stuck on yoiu* government claim. 

Now hurrah for Lane county, where the bUzzards arise. 
The wind never ceases, and the moon never rise, 
Where the sun never sets, but it always remains. 
Till it burns us all out on our government claims. 

Now don't get discouraged, you poor hungry men. 
You're all just as free as the pig in the pen, 
Just stick to yovir homestead, and battle the fleas, 
And look to yoiu* Maker to send you a breeze. 

Hurrah for Lane county, the land of the West, 
Where the farmers and laborers are ever at rest; . 
There's nothing to do but to stick and remain, 
And starve like a dog on a government claim. 

Now, all your poor sinners, I hope you will stay, 
And chew the hard rag till you're toothless and gray. 
But as for myself, I'll no longer remain. 
To starve Uke a dog on a government claim. 

Farewell to Lane county, farewell to the West, 
I'll travel back east to the girl I love best, 
I'll stop at Missouri and get me a wife, 
Then live on corn dodgers, the rest of my life. 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 181 

84 

THE BUFFALO SKINNERS 

Come all you jolly fellows and listen to my song, 
There are not many verses, it will not detain you long; 
It's concerning some young fellows who did agree to go 
And spend one sunamer pleasantly on the range of the 
buffalo. 

It happened in Jacksboro in the spring of seventy-three, 
A man by the name of Crego came stepping up to me, 
Saying, "How do you do, yoimg fellow, and how would 

you like to go 
And spend one summer pleasantly on the range of the 

buffalo?" 

It's me being out of employment, this to Crego I did 

say, 
"This going out on the buffalo range depends upon the 

pay. 
But if you will pay good wages and transportation too, 
I think, sir, I will go with you to the range of the 

buffalo." 

'Yes, I will pay good wages, give transportation too. 
Provided you will go with me and stay the summer 

through; 
But if you should grow homesick, come back to 

Jacksboro, 



182 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

I won't pay transportation from the range of the 
buffalo/' 

It's now our outfit was complete — seven able-bodied 

men, 
With navy six and needle gun — our troubles did begin; 
Our way it was a pleasant one, the route we had to go, 
Until we crossed Pease River on the range of the 

buffalo. 

It's now we've crossed Pease River, our troubles have 

begun. 
The first damned tail I went to rip, Christ! how I cut 

my thimab! 
While skinning the damned old stinkers our lives wasn't 

a show. 
For the Indians watched to pick us off while skinrting 

the buffalo. 

He fed us on such sorry truck I wished myself 'most 

dead. 
It was old jerked beef, croton coffee, and sour bread. 
Pease River's as salty as hell fire, the water I could 

never go, — 
God! I wished I had never come to the range of the 

buffalo. 

Our meat it was buffalo hump and iron wedge bread, 
And all we had to sleep on was a buffalo robe for a bed; 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 183 

The fleas and gray-backs worked on us, O boys, it was 

not slow, 
I'll teU you there's no worse hell on earth than the 

range of the buffalo. 

Our hearts were cased with buffalo hocks, our souls 

were cased with steel, 
And the hardships of that summer would nearly make 

us reel. 
While skinning the damned old stinkers our lives they 

had no show. 
For the Indians waited to pick us off on the hills of 

Mexico. 

The season being near over, old Crego he did say 
The crowd had been extravagant, was in debt to him 

that day, — 
We coaxed him and we begged him and still it was no 

go,— 
We left old Crego's bones to bleach on the range of the 
buffalo. 

Oh, it's now we've crossed Pease River and homeward 

we are bound. 
No more in that hell-fired country shall we ever be 

found. 
Go home to our wives and sweethearts, tell others not 

to go. 
For God's forsaken the buffalo range and the damned 

old buffalo. 



184 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

85 

/ 
THE KINKAIDER'S SONG 

You ask what place I like the best, 
The sand hills, O the old sand hills; 
The place Kinkaiders make their home 
And prairie chickens freely roam. 

Chorus (for first and second verses) : 

In all Nebraska's wide domain 
'Tis the place we long to see again; 
The sand hills are the very best, 
She is queen of all the rest. 

The corn we raise is our deUght, 
The melons, too, are out of sight. 
Potatoes grown are extra fine 
And can't be beat in any clime. 

The peaceful cows in pastures dream 
And furnish us with golden cream, 
So I shall keep my Kinkaid home 
And never far away shall roam. 

Chorus (third verse) : 

Then let us all with hearts sincere 
Thank him for what has brought us here, 
And for the homestead law he made, 
This noble Moses P. Kinkaid. 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 185 

86 
DAKOTA LAND 

WeVe reached the land of desert sweet, 
Where nothing grows for man to eat. 
The wind it blows with feverish heat 
Across the plains so hard to beat. 

Dakota land, sweet Dakota land, 
As on thy fiery soil I stand 

1 look across the plains 

And wonder why it never rains, 
Till Gabriel blows his trumpet sound 
And says the rain's just gone around. 

We have no wheat, we have no oats, 
We have no corn to feed our shoats; 
Our chickens are so very poor 
They beg for crimibs outside the door. 

Our horses are of broncho race ; 
Starvation stares them in the face. 
We do not live, we only stay; 
We are too poor to get away. 

87 

THE DREARY BLACK HILLS 

Now friends if you'll listen to a horrible tale 

It's getting quite dreary and it's getting quite stale, 



186 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

I gave up my trade selling Ayers' Patent Pills 
To go and hunt gold in the dreary Black Hills, 

Stay away, I say, stay away if you can 
Far from that city they call Cheyenne, 
Where the blue waters roll and Comanche Bill 
Will take off your scalp, boys, in those dreary Black 
HiUs. 

Now, friends, if you'll listen to a story untold 
Don't go to the Black Hills a-digging for gold; 
For the railroad speculators their pockets will fill, 
While taking you a round trip to the dreary Black Hills. 

I went to the Black Hills, no gold could I find. 
I thought of the free land I'd left far behind; 
Through rain, snow, and hail, boys, froze up to the gills, 
They called me the orphan of the dreary Black Hills. 

The round house at Cheyenne is filled every night 

With loafers and beggars of every kind of sight; 

On their backs there's no clothes, boys, in their pockets 

no bills. 
And they'll take off your scalp in those dreary Black 

Hills. 

88 

V JOE BOWERS 

My name it is Joe Bowers, 
I've got a brother Ike; 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 187 

I come from Old Missouri, 
It's all the way from Pike. 
I'll tell you how I came here, 
And how I came to roam. 
And leave my good old mammy, 
So far away from home. 

There was a gal in our town. 
Her name was Sally Black; 
I asked her for to marry me. 
She said it was a whack. 
Says she to me, ''Joe Bowers, 
Before we hitch for Hfe 
You ought to have a little home 
To keep your little wife.'' 



Says I to her, ''Dear Sally! 
All for your own dear sake, 
I'm off to California 
To try to raise a stake." 
Says she to me, "Joe Bowers, 
You are the man to win. 
Here's a kiss to bind the bargain. 
And she threw a dozen in. 



?y 



When I got to this country 
I hadn't nary red. 
I had such wolfish feelings, 
I almost wished I'as dead. 
But when I thought of Sally 



188 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

It made those feeKngs git, 

And raised the hopes of Bowers — 

I wish I had ^em yet. 

And so I went to mining, 
Put in my biggest hcks; 
Come down upon the boulders 
Like a thousand of bricks. 
I labored late and early, 
In rain an^ sun an' snow, 
I was working for my Sally — 
'Twas aU the same to Joe. 

One day I got a letter, 
'Twas from my brother Ike; 
It came from Old Missouri, 
And all the way from Pike. 
It was the darndest letter 
That ever I did see. 
And brought the darndest news 
That was ever brought to me. 

It said that Sal was false to me — 

It made me cuss and swear — 

How she'd went and married a butcher, 

And the butcher had red hair; 

And, whether 'twas gal or boy 

The letter never said. 

But that Sally had a baby. 

And the baby's head was red! 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 189 

89 

IN THE SUMMER OF SIXTY 

In the summer of sixty as you very well know 
The excitement at Pike's Peak was then all the go; 
Many went there with fortunes and spent what they 

had 
And came back flat-busted and looking quite sad. 

'Twas then I heard farming was a very fine branch, 
So I spent most of my money in buying a ranch, 
And when I got to it with sorrow and shame 
I found a big miner had jimiped my fine claim. 

So I bought a revolver and swore I'd lay low 
The very next fellow that treated me so; 
I then went to Denver and cut quite a dash 
And took extra pains to show off my cash. 

With a fine span of horses, my wife by my side, 
I drove through the streets with my hat on one side; 
As we were agoin' past the old '^ Denver Hall" 
Sweet music came out that did charm us all. 

Says I, "Let's go in and see what's the muss 
For I feel right now Uke having a fuss." 
There were tables strung over the hall, 
Some was a-whirling a wheel with a ball. 



190 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

Some playin' cards and some shakin' dice 

And lots of half dollars that looked very nice; 

I finally strayed to a table at last 

Where all the poor suckers did seem to stick fast. 

And there stood a man with cards in his hand, 
And these were the words which he did command, 
^'Now, gents, the winning card is the ace, 
I guess you will know it if I show you its face.'' 

One corner tm-ned down, it's plain to be seen, 
I looked at that fellow and thought he was green, 
Yes I looked at that feller and thought he was green, 
One corner turned down, 'twas so plain to be seen. 

So I bet all my money and lo and behold! 
'Twas a tray-spot of clubs and he took all my gold. 
Then I went home and crawled into bed 
And the divil a word to my wife ever said. 

'Twas early next morning I felt for my purse 
Biting my Ups to keep down a curse; 
Yes, 'twas early next morning as the sun did rise 
You might have seen with your two blessed eyes, 

In an ox wagon, 'twas me and my wife 

Goin' down the Platte river for death or for life. 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 191 

90 
THE DYING CALIFORNIAN 

Lay up nearer, brother, nearer 

For my limbs are growing cold, 
And thy presence seemeth dearer 

When thine arms around me fold. 
I am dying, brother, dying. 

Soon you'U miss me in your berth, 
And my form wiU soon be lying 

'Neath the ocean's briny surf. 

Harken, brother, closely harken. 

I have something I would say, 
Ere the vale my visions darken 

And I go from hence away. 
I am going, surely going. 

For my hope in God is strong, 
I am wilUng, brother, knowing 

That he doeth nothing wrong. 

Tell my father when you greet him 

That in death I prayed for him. 
Prayed that I might one day meet him 

In a world that is free from sin. 
Tell my mother God assist her 

Now that she is growing old, 
Tell her child would glad have kissed her 

When his lips grew pale and cold. 



192 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

my children, heaven bless them, 

They were all my life to me, 
Would I could once more caress them 

Ere I sink beneath the sea. 
Listen, brother, catch each whisper, 

'Tis my wife I speak of now. 
Tell, tell her how I missed her 

When the fever burned my brow. 

Tell her she must kiss my children 

Like the kiss I last impressed. 
Hold them as when last I held them 

Folded closely to my breast. 
Give them early to their maker, 

Putting all their trust in God, 
And he never will forsake them 

For he said so in his word. 

Tell my sister when I remember 

Every kindly parting word. 
And my heart has been kept tender 

With the thought this memory stirred. 
'Twas for them I crossed the ocean — 

What my hopes were I'll not tell; 
And I've gained an orphan's portion, 

Yet he doeth all things well. 

Tell them I never reach that haven 
Where I sought the "precious dust," 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 193 

But IVe gained a port called Heaven 

Where the gold will never rust. 
Hark, I hear my Saviour speaking, 

'Tis his voice I know so well. 
When I am gone, O don't be weeping. 

Brother, here is my last farewell. 



MISCELLANEOUS 
BALLADS AND SONGS 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 197 

91 

THE PRETTY MOHEA 

As I went out walking for pleasure one day, 
In sweet recreation to while time away; 
As I sat amusing myself on the grass, 
who should I spy but a fair Indian lass. 

She sat down beside me, and taking my hand 
Said "You are a stranger and in a strange land; 
But if you will follow you're welcome to come 
And dwell in the cottage that I call my home 



yy 



The sun was fast sinking far o'er the blue sea. 
When I wandered alone with my pretty Mohea. 
Together we wandered, together did rove. 
Till we come to the cot in the cocoanut grove. 

Then this kind expression she made unto me: 
"If you will consent, sir, to stay here with me 
And go no more roving upon the salt sea, 
ril teach you the language of the lass of Mohea." 

"0 no, my dear maiden, that never could be; 
For I have a true love in my own country; 
And I'll not forsake her for I know she loves me, 
And her heart is as true as the pretty Mohea." 

'Twas early one morning, a morning in May, 
That to this fair maiden these words I did say : 



198 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 



(C 



I'm going to leave you, so farewell my dear; 
My ship's sails are spreading and home I must steer." 

The last time I saw her she stood on the strand; 
And as the boat passed her she waved me her hand, 
Saying, '*When you have landed with the girl that you 

love, 
Think of little Mohea in the cocoanut grove." 

And then when I landed on my own native shore. 
With friends and relations around me once more, 
I gazed all about me — Not one could I see 
That was fit to compare with the little Mohea. 

And the girl that I trusted proved untrue to me; 
So I'll turn my course backward far o'er the deep sea. 
I'll turn my course backward; from this land I'll flee; 
I'll go spend my days with my pretty Mohea. 

92 
(A) KATIE'S SECRET 

The sunKght is beautiful, mother, 

And bloom the flowers today; 
And birds in the branches of hawthorne 

Were carolHng ever so gay; 
And down by the rock in the meadow 

The rill ripples by with a song. 
And, mother, I too have been singing 

The merriest all the day long. 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 199 

Last night I was weeping, dear mother, 

Last night I was weeping alone. 
This world seemed so dark and so dreary 

My heart felt as heavy as stone. 
I thought of the lonely and loveless, 

So lonely and loveless was I; 
I scarcely know why it was, mother, 

But thought I was wishing to die. 

Last night I was weeping, dear mother. 

When WilHe came down to the gate. 
And whispered, '* Come out in the moonlight, 

IVe something to say to you, Kate." 
And, mother, to him I am dearer 

Than all this wide world beside, 
For he told me to sit in the moonlight. 

And called me his darling, his bride. 

So now I will gather my roses, 

And twine them in my long braided hair; 

And WiUie will come in the evening 
' And smile when he sees me so fair. 

And down by the brookside we'll ramble 
Way down by the great hawthorne tree; 

And, mother, I wonder if any 
Were ever so happy as we. 

(B) THE HAWTHORNE TREE 

Last night I was sleeping, dear mother. 
When WiUie came down by the gate; 



200 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

He whispered, "Come out in the moonUght, 
IVe something to say to you, Kate/' 

We wandered way down in the bushes, 
'Neath the tall old hawthorne tree, 

O, mother, I wonder if any were 
Ever so happy as we! 

And, mother, to him I am dearer 
Than all in this wide world beside. 

He told me so, out in the moonHght, 
He called me his darling, his bride. 

And soon they will gather wild flowers, 

To twine in my long braided hair; 
Then Wilhe will come in the evening 

And smile when he sees me so fair. 

93 
MARY AND WILLIE 

As Mary aad WiUie sat by the sea shore, 

Their last farewell to take. 
Said Mary to Willie, "You're now going to sea, 

I fear that my fond heart will break." 
"0 don't be despairing," young WilUe then said, 

And pressed his fair maid to his side; 

My absence don't mourn, for when I return, 

I'll make little Mary my bride." 



n 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 201 

Three years having passed without any news, 

As Mary stands by her own door, 
An old beggar came by with a patch on his eye, 

And did for her pity implore. 
"Fair lady,'' cried he, "your charity bestow. 

And I'll tell your fortune beside; 
The lad whom you mourn will never return 

To make Kttle Mary his bride." 

"0 if it be true you tell unto me. 

My WiUie, my hero, still Uves, 
O if it be true, straightway imto you. 

All the money I have I will give." 
'^He is Uving," quoth he, "all in poverty; 

He has been shipwrecked beside; 
He'll return no more because he is poor. 

To make little Mary his bride." 

"May the heavens above know the joy that I feel. 

And for his misfortune I'll mourn; 
He's welcome to me, all in poverty. 

With his blue jacket tattered and torn." 
The beggar threw by the patch from his eye. 

Likewise the crutch from his side; 
Blue jacket and trousers and cheeks like a rose. 

Young Willie stood by Mary's side. 

"Forgive me, fair lady, forgive me," he cried, 

"It was only your love that I tried; 
To the church we'll away before close of day, 



202 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

To make little Mary my bride. 
I've money in plenty and riches untold, 

I never was shipwrecked beside; 
In coaches we'll roll all covered with gold, 

When I make Httle Mary my bride." 

94 
KITTY WELLS 

You ask what makes this darkey weep. 

Why he, Uke others, am not gay. 
What makes the tears roll down his cheek 

From early morn till close of day; 
My story now you all shaU hear, 

For in my memory fond it dwells; 
'Twill cause you each to shed a tear 

O'er the grave of my sweet Kitty Wells. 

Where the birds were singing in the morning, 
And the myrtle and the ivy were in bloom, 
While the sim o'er the hill-tops was dawning, 
'Twas there they laid her in her tomb. 

I never shall forget the day 

When with sweet Kitty in the dells 
I kissed her cheek and named the day 

That I should marry Kitty Wells. 
But death came to her cottage door. 

And stole away my joy and pride; 
And when I found she was no more, 

I laid my banjo down and cried. 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 203 

95 

PASTORAL ELEGY 

What sorrowful sounds do I hear 
Move slowly along in the gale? 
How solemn the bell on my ear 
As softly they pass through the gale! 
Sweet Coroden's notes are all o'er, 
How lonely he sleeps in the clay! 
His cheeks bloom with roses no more 
Since death called his spirit away. 

Sweet woodbine will rise round his tomb, 
And willows there sorrowing wave, 
Young hyacinths freshen and bloom 
While hawthorns encircle his grave. 
Each morn when the sim guiles the east,, 
The green grass bespangles with dew, 
He'll cast his bright beams on the west 
To cheer the sad CaroUne's view- 

O Coroden, hear the sad cries 
Of Caroline plaintive and low? 
O spirit look down from the skies, 
And pity the mourner below! 
'Tis Carohne's voice in the grove. 
Which Philomel heard on the plain; 
Then striving the mourner to soothe. 
With sympathy join in her strain. 



204 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

Ye shepherds so bhthesome and young, 
Retire from your sports on the green. 
Since Coroden^s deaf to my song, 
The wolves tear the lambs in the plain. 
Each swain round the forest will stray, 
And sorrowing hung down his head. 
His pipe then in sympathy played 
Some dirge to young Coroden's shade. 

And when the still night has unfurled 
Her robes o'er the hamlet around ; 
Gray twihght retires from the world 
And darkness encumbers the ground. 
I'll leave my own gloomy abode. 
To Coroden's urn will I fly; 
Then kneeling will bless the just God 
Who dwells in bright mansions on high. 

Since Coroden hears me no more 
In gloom let the woodlands appear. 
Ye oceans, be still of your roar, 
Let autumn extend roimd the year. 
I'll hie me through meadows and lawns, 
There cull the bright flowers of May; 
Then rise on the wings of the morn 
And waft my young spirit away. 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 205 

96 
THE COURTSHIP OF BILLY GRIMES 



4t 



Tomorrow, Pa, I'm sweet sixteen, and Billy Grimes 

the drover. 
Has popped the question to me. Pa, and wants to be 

my lover; 
He's coming here tomorrow, Pa, he's coming bright 

and early. 
And I'm to take a walk with him across the fields of 

barley." 

^'You shall not go, my daughter dear, now there's no 

use in talking; 
You shall not go with Billy Grimes' across the fields 

a- walking; 
To think of such presumption, child, that ugly dirty 

drover, 
I don't see where your pride has gone, to think of such 

a lover." 

*'01d Grimes is dead, you know. Papa, and Billy is 

so lonely. 
Old Grimes is dead, you know. Papa, and Billy is the 

only 
Surviving heir to all that's left, a good ten thousand 

nearly, 
Besides he is the only heir of about three thousand 

yearly." 



206 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

"I did not hear, my daughter dear, your last remark 

quite clearly, 
But Billy is a goodly lad, no doubt he loves you dearly; 
Tomorrow morning he may come, he may come bright 

and early. 
And you may take a walk with him across the fields of 

barley/' 

97 
FAIR FANNY MOORE 

Yonder stands a cottage all deserted and lone, 
Its paths are neglected, with grass overgrown. 
Go in and you'll see some dark stains on the floor — 
Alas! it is the blood of the fair Fanny Moore. 

To Fanny so blooming two lovers there came, 
One offered young Fanny his wealth and his name; 
But neither his money nor pride could secure 
A place in the heart of the fair Fanny Moore. 

The first was young RandaU so bold and so proud, 
When to the fair Fanny his haughty head bowed; 
But his wealth and his house both failed to alliu-e 
The heart from the bosom of fair Fanny Moore. 

The next was young Henry of lowest degree. 
He won his fond love and enraptured was he; 
And then at the altar he quick did secure 
The hand and the heart of the fair Fanny Moore, 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 207 

As she was alone in her cottage one day, 
When business had called her fond husband away, 
Young Randall the haughty came in at the door, 
And clasped in his arms this young fair Fanny Moore . 

"Now Fanny, O Fanny, reflect on your fate, 
And accept of my offer before 'tis too late; 
For one thing tonight I am bound to secure, 
'Tis the love or the Ufe of the fair Fanny Moore. 



if 



"Spare me, O spare me," the fair Fanny cries, 
While the tears swiftly flow from her beautiful eyes; 
"O no,'' says young Randall, "Go home to your rest,'' 
And he buried his knife in her snowy white breast. 

So Fanny all blooming in her bright beauty died. 
Young Randall the haughty was taken and tried; 
At length he was hung on a tree at the door. 
For shedding the blood of the fair Fanny Moore. 

Young Henry the shepherd, distracted and wild, 

Did wander away from his own native isle; 

Till at length claimed by death, he was brought to 

the shore 
And laid by the side of his fair Fanny Moore. 

98 

I WISH I WAS SINGLE AGAIN 

When I was single, O then, O then, 
When I was single, then, 



208 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

When I was single^ my money did jingle, 
I wish I was single again, again, 
And I wish I was single again. 

I married me a wife, O then, O then, 

I married me a wife, O then, 

I married me a wife, she^s the plague of my life. 

And I wished I was single again, again, 

And I wished I was single again. 

My wife she died, O then, O then, 
My wife she died, O then, 
My wife she died, and then I cried, 
To think I was single again, again, 
To think I was single again. 

I married another, the deviFs grandmother, 

I wished I was single again. 

For when I was single, my money did jingle, 

I wish I was single again, again, 

I wish I was single again. 

99 

I'LL NOT MARRY AT ALL 

I'm determined to live an old maid, 
I'll take my stool and sit in the shade. 
And I'll not marry at all, at all. 
And I'll not marry at all. 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 209 

O I'll not marry a man who's rich, 
For he'd get drunk and fall in a ditch, 
And I'll not marry at all, at all. 
And I'll not marry at all. 

O I'U not marry a man who's poor, 
For he'd go begging from door to door, 
And I'll not marry at all, at all, 
And I'll not marry at all. 

O I'll not marry a man who chews, 
For he'll go slobbering from chin to shoes, 
And I'll not marry at all, at all, 
And I'll not marry at all. 

O I'll not marry a man who smokes. 
For that would not please the old folks, 
And I'll not marry at all, at all 
And I'll not marry at all. 

Yes, I'm determined to live an old maid, 
I'll take my stool and sit in the shade, 
And I'll not marry at all, at all. 
And I'll npt marry at all. 

100 

ROSEN THE BOW 

I have traveled this wide world all over. 
And now to another I'll go; 



210 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

For I know that good quarters are waiting 
To welcome Old Rosen the Bow. 

The gay round of dehght I have travelled, 

Nor will I behind leave a woe; 
For when my companions are jovial, 

They drink to Old Rosen the Bow. 

This hf e is now drawing to a closing. 

All will at last be so; 
Then we'll take a full bumper at parting. 

To the name of Old Rosen the Bow, 

When I am dead and laid out on the coimter, 

And the people all anxious to know, 
Just raise up the hd of my cofl&n 

And look at Old Rosen the Bow. 

And when through all the streets my friends bear me, 

The ladies are filled with deep woe. 
They'll come to the doors and the windows, 

And sigh for Old Rosen the Bow. 

Then get me some fine jovial fellows. 

And let them all staggering go; 
Then dig a deep hole in the meadow, 

And in it toss Rosen the Bow. 

Then get me a couple of dornicks. 
Place one at my head and my toe, 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 211 

And do not forget to scratch on them, 
"Here Hes Old Rosen the Bow/' 

Then let those same jovial fellows, 

SiKround my grave in a row, 
Whilst they drink from my favorite bottle 

The health to old Rosen the Bow. 

101 

EVALINA 

Way down in the meadow where the lily first blows. 
Where the wind from the mountain never ruflBles the 

rose. 
Lives fond Evalina, the sweet little dove. 
The pride of the valley, the girl that I love. 

Sweet Evalina, dear Evalina, 

My love for thee will never, never die. 

She's fair as the rose, like a lamb she is meek. 
And she never was known to put paint on her cheek; 
In the most graceful curls hangs her raven black hair. 
And she never requires perfumery there. 

Evalina and I one fond evening in June, 
Took a walk all alone by the light of the moon; 
The planets all shone for the heavens were clear, 
And I felt round my heart O so mightily queer. 



212 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

Three years have gone by and I've not got a dollar; 
Evalina stills hves in the green grassy hollow; 
Although I am fated to marry her never, 
I love her, I'm sm*e, forever and ever. 



102 

MY BLUE-EYED BOY 

There is a tree I love to pass, 
And it has leaves as green as grass, 
But not as green as love is true; 
I love but one and that is you. 

Bring to me my blue-eyed boy! 
Bring, O bring him back to me ! 
Bring to me my blue-eyed boy. 
What a happy, happy girl I'd be. 

Must I go bound and he go free? 
Must I love one that don't love me? 
Or must I act a childish part 
And love the one that broke my heart? 

Go bear, go bear, go bear in mind 
That a good true friend is hard to find, 
And when you find one good and true 
Never change the old one for the new. 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 213 

Adieu, adieu kind friends, adieu, 
I can no longer stay with you. 
1^11 hang my heart in a willow tree, 
And give it to the one that first loved me. 

103 

THE OLD GRAY MULE 

Mr. Thomas had an old gray mule. 

And he drove him to a cart. 
And he loved that mule and the mule loved him 

With all his mulish heart. 
Mr. Thomas knowed when the roosters crowed 

That day was a-gwine to break, 
So he slicked that mule with a three-legged stool, 

And he curried him off with a rake. 

And the mule would ea-aw-w-w, 

Ee-aw, ee-aw, ee-aw-w-w, 
And he cuffed that mule and he cuffed that mule. 

And he curried him off with a rake. 

He fed him on some old boot tops 

And bits of yellow clay. 
Some shavings and some wooden pegs. 

Instead of oats and hay; 
And the mule would chaw with his iron jaw, 

On a piece of dirty sock, 
And he'd wink his eye if he had some pie, 

And his mouth chuck full of sock. 



214 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

That mule could kick like a ton of brick; 

Both hind legs were loose, 
And he flung them back at a big lipped Jack, 

And he mashed his royal snoot; 
That negro thought that he'd been caught 

In an awful big cyclone. 
And you bet he wished that he had let 

That old gray mule alone. 

One day while wandering in a field 

He found an old hoop skirt; 
He at once began to have a feast 

On royal rust and dirt. 
That night he had an awful cramp 

That settled in his feet, 
And ere morn dawned that mule had gone 

To walk on the golden street. 



104 

I WILL TELL YOU OF A FELLOW 

I will tell you of a fellow. 
Of a fellow I have seen, 
Who was neither white nor yellow. 
Nor was altogether green. 

With my life alure a lickem, 
With my Ufe alure a lem- 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 215 

he came one night to see me, 

And he made so long a stay, 
That I really thought the blockhead 

Never meant to go away. 

With my life alm-e a Uckem, etc. 

O he told me of devotion, 

Of devotion pm-e and deep, 
And he talked so awful silly 

That I nearly fell asleep. 

With my life alure a Hckem, etc. 

he told me of a cottage. 

Of a cottage by the seas. 
And then, would you beHeve it. 

Why, he timibled on his knees. 

With my life alure a lickem, etc. 

I knew I couldn't love him. 

But the very deuce is in it; 
For he says if I refuse him. 

Why, he couldn't Hve a minute. 

With my life alure a lickem, etc. 

« 
And you know the blessed Bible 

Plainly says we mustn't kill; 

So I've thought the matter over, 

And I kind of think — I will. 

With my Ufe alure a lickem, etc. 



216 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

105 

THE PREACHER'S LEGACY 

O, if poor sinners did but know 

How much for them I undergo, 

They would not treat me with contempt, 

Nor curse me when I say "Repent." 

Give credit now to what I say, 

And mind it till the judgment day, 

Of God I'm sent, to you I call. 

The invitation is to all. 

My loving brethren think it strange 
That I should leave my dearest friends; 
My sisters wonder where I am. 
That I do not return to them. 
My parents' house I bid adieu, 
And on my journey I pursue. 
To distant climes I now repair 
To call poor sinners far and near. 

Through storms of wind and rain and snow 
Both day and night I have to go 
To attend the appointments I have made, 
Or find some place to lay my head. 
Sometimes in open houses sleep 
Or in some little place I creep, 
I cannot sleep for want of clothes. 
Smothered in smoke and almost froze. 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 217 

I ofttimes with false brethren meet 
Whose heart is full of vain deceit. 
They seem quite pleasant at the first, 
But of all friends they are the worst. 
The roaring tempest beat with force, 
And ofttimes drives me from my course. 
But he who hears the sparrows' care 
Protects and drives away my fear. 

Sometimes with hunger I grow faint, 
But travel on till almost spent, 
Without a friend and helper nigh 
But he who hears the ravens' cry. 
When lo, I hear a glorious voice. 
Saying, ^'Arise, in me rejoice! 
Go to the earth's remotest bounds, 
I'll be thy friend while foes surround." 

And when my work is done below, 

I hope to glory I shall go; 

I'll take my lofty distant flight 

To dwell with saints in endless light. 

With all the happy pilgrims there, 

And in God's kingdom have a share. 

We'll shout and sing, our suffering o'er, 

Where Christian friends will part no more. 



218 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

106 
THE SPANISH CABINEER 

The Spanish cabineer stood under a tree 
And on his gautar played a tone, dear, 

The music so sweet I often repeat. 

Remember what I say and be true, dear. 

Say darhng, say, when I am far away, 
Sometime you may think of me, dear. 

Bright simny days, will soon pass away, 
Remember what I say and be true, 
dear. 

Off to the war, to the war I must go, 
To fight for my country and you, dear, 

And if I should fall, in vain I would call. 
For blessings on you and my coimtry. 

When the war is over, to you I'U return. 
Back to my country and you, dear; 

But if I am slain you might seek me in vain, 
On the battlefield you will find me. 

107 

THE TWO DRUMMERS 

Two drummers sat at dinner 
In a grand hotel one day. 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 219 

While dining they were chatting 

In a jolly sort of way; 
And when a pretty waitress 

Brought them a tray of food, 
They accosted her 

In a manner rather rude. 
At first she did not notice them 

Or make the least reply, 
Till one remark was passed 

That brought tears to her eye. 
Then, facing her tormentors. 

Cheeks now bm*ning red. 
She looked a perfect picture 

As appealingly she said : 

''My mother was a lady. 

As yoin-s, no doubt you'll allow, 
And you may have a sister 

Who needs protection now. 
I came to this great city 

To find a brother dear, 
You'd not dare insult me, sir. 

If Jack were only here.'' 

'Tis true one touch of nature 
Makes the whole world akin, 

And every word she uttered 

Seemed to pierce their hearts within. 

She left them stunned and silent 
Till just one cry of shame — 



220 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

'* Forgive me, Miss, I meant no harm: 

Pray tell me, what's yom* name/' 
She told him and he cried again, 

^'I know your brother, too, 
WeVe been friends for many years, 

And he often speaks of you. 
He'll be so glad to see you, 

And if you'll only wed, 
I'll take you to him as my wife 

For I love you since you said: 

"My mother is a lady, 

As yoiu^, no doubt you'll allow. 
And you may have a sister 

Who needs protection now. 
I came to this great city 

To find a brother dear. 
You'd not dare insult me, sir. 

If Jack were only here." 



DIALOGUE, NURSERY, 
AND GAME SONGS 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND^ SONGS 223 

108 

THE QUAKER'S COURTSHIP 

^'Madam, I have come a-courting, hi, ho, hum! 
I'm for business, not for sporting, hi, ho himi!'* 

"That you go home is my desire, rol dol dil a day. 
Unless you stay and court the fire, rol dol dil a day.*' 

"IVe a ring that's worth a shilling, hi ho hinn. 
Thou mayst wear it if thou'rt willing, hi ho hum!'* 



"01 don't want your ring or money, rol dol dil a day, 
I want a man that'll call me honey, rol dol dil a day," 



"I've a kitchen full of servants, hi ho hum! 
Thou mayst be a mistress o'er them, hi ho hmnJ 



"Indeed I'll not be scolded for you, rol dol dil a day. 
Indeed I think myself above you, rol dol dil a day." 



"I've a stable full of horses, hi ho himi, 

Thou mayst ride them at my bidding, hi ho himi.^ 



"Indeed I'll not be jockey for you, rol dol dil a day. 
I think I'm better off without you, rol dol dil a day." 

"Must I give up my reUgion? dear me! 
Must I join the Presbyterians? dear me!" 



224 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

"O you go home and tell your daddy, rol dol dil a day, 
That you couldn't get me ready, rol dol dil a day!" 

"O you go home and tell your mother, rol dol dil a day, 
That you're a fool and lots of bother, rol dol dil a day." 

"Must I leave without one token? O dear me! 
Must I die with my heart broken? O dear me." 

"Cheer up, cheer up, my loving brother, hi ho hum, 
If you can't catch me just catch another, hi ho himi!" 

109 

DUTCHMAN, DUTCHMAN, WON'T YOU 
MARRY ME? 

"Dutchman, Dutchman, won't you marry me?" 

"No, no, no, not I. 
How can I marry such a pretty little girl 

When I have no shoes to put on?" 

Away to the shoeshop she did vent 

As fast as she could go. 
Bought him some shoes of the very best kind. 

"Now, Dutchman, put them on! 

"Dutchman, Dutchman, won't you marry me?" 

"No, no, no, not I. 
How can I marry such a pretty Kttle girl 

When I have no coat to put on?" 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 225 

Away to the tailor's shop she did vent 

As fast as she could go, 
Bought him a coat of the very best cut. 

"Now Dutchman, draw him on! 



f}J9 



jy 



* Dutchman, Dutchman, won't you marry me? 

"No, no, no, not I. 
How can I marry such a pretty Httle girl 

When I have no hat to put on?" 

Away to the hatter's shop she did vent 

As fast as she could go. 
Bought him a hat of the very best style 

"Now Dutchman, put him on! 

''Dutchman, Dutchman, won't you marry me? 

"No, no, no, not I. 
How can I marry such a pretty little girl 

When I have one wife to home?" 

110 
WHAT WILL YOU GIVE ME IF I GET UP? 

"What will you give me if I get up, , 

If I get up, if I get up? 
What will you give me if I get up. 

If I get up today?" 

"A slice of bread and a cup of tea, 
A cup, a cup, a cup of tea, 



226 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

A sKce of bread and a cup of tea, 
If you get up today/' 



"No, mother, I won't get up, 
I won't, I won't, I won't get up, 

No, mother, I won't get up^ 
I won't get up today." 

"What will you give me if I get up, 

If I get up, if I get up? 
What will you give me if I get up, 

If I get up today?" 

"A nice young man with rosy cheeks. 
With rosy cheeks, with rosy cheeks, 
A nice young man with rosy cheeks, 
If you'll get up today." 

"Yes, mother, I will get up, 

I will get up, I will get up. 
Yes, mother, I will get up, 

I will get up today." 

Ill 
PAPER OF PINS 

"I'll give thee a paper of pins 

If that's the way that love begins. 

If you'll but marry, if you'll but marry, if you'll but 



marry me." 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 227 

"I'll not accept the paper of pins, 
If that's the way that love begins, 
And I'll not marry, I'll not marry. I'll not marry you.'^ 

"I'll give thee a Kttle lap dog, 
That'll go with you when you go abroad. 
If you'll but marry, if you'U but marry, if you'll but 
marry me." 

"I'll not accept the Kttle lap dog. 
To go with me when I go abroad, 
And 111 not marry, I'll not marry, I'll not marry you.'' 

"I'll give to thee a coach and four. 
With every horse as white as snow. 
If you'll but marry, if you'll but marry, if you'll but 
marry me." 



" I'll not accept a coach and four. 

With every horse as white as snow. 

And I'll not marry, I'll not marry, I'll not marry you. 



yy 



I'll give to thee a coach and six. 

With every horse as black as pitch. 

If you'll but marry, if you'll but marry, if you'll but 



marry me." 



(tj) 



I'll not accept the coach and six. 
With every horse as black as pitch. 
And I'll not marry, I'll not marry, I'll not marry you.*' 



228 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

''I'll give to thee the key of my heart, 
That we may lock and never part, 
If you'll but marry, if you'll but marry, if you'll but 
marry me." 

"I'U not accept the key of thy heart. 

That we may lock and never part, 

And I'll not marry, I'U not marry, I'll not marry you." 

"I'll give to thee a chest of gold, 
And all the money you can control. 
If you'll but marry, if you'll but marry, if you'll but 
marry me." 



it 



I will accept a chest of gold, 
And all the money I can control. 
And I will marry, I will marry, I will marry you, 



J9 



ii 



Ha, ha! Ha, ha! money is all 
Woman's love is nothing at all. 
And I'll not marry, I'll not marry, I'll not marry you." 

112 

(A) THE MILKMAID 



n 



Where are you going, my pretty maid. 
My pretty maid, my pretty maid, 
Where are you going, my pretty maid?" 
I'm going a-milking, sir, I say. 



HTU 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 229 

Sir, I say, sir, I say, 
I'm going a-milking, sir, I say." 

''May I go with you, my pretty maid, 

My pretty maid, my pretty maid, 
May I go with you, my pretty maid?'' 
"You may if you wish to, sir, I say, 

Sir, I say, sir, I say, 
You may if you wish to, sir, I say." 

"What is your father, my pretty maid, 

My pretty maid, my pretty maid. 
What is your father, my pretty maid?" 
"My father's a farmer, sir, I say, 

Sir, I say, sir, I say. 
My father's a farmer, sir, I say." 

"What is your fortune, my pretty maid, 

My pretty maid, my pretty maid. 
What is your fortune, my pretty maid?" 
"My face is my fortune, sir, I say, 

Sir, I say, sir, I say. 
My face is my fortune, sir, I say." 

"Then I won't have you, my pretty maid. 

My pretty maid, my pretty maid. 
Then I won't have you, my pretty maid." 
"Nobody asked you, sir, I say, 

Sir, I say, sir, I say. 
Nobody asked you, sir, I say." 



230 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

(B) THE PRETTY MILKMAID 

"0 where are you going to, my pretty maid, 
where are you going to, my pretty maid?'' 
"I'm going a-milking, sir," she said, "sir," she said, 
"I'm going a-milking, sir," she said. 

"O may I go with you, my pretty maid, 

O may I go with you, my pretty maid?" 

"O yes, if you Kke, kind sir," she said, "sir," she said, 

"O yes, if you Hke, kind sir," she said. 

"0 what is your father, my pretty maid, 

O what is yoin- father, my pretty maid?" 

"My father's a farmer, sir," she said, "sir," she said, 

''My father's a farmer, sir," she said. 



iC 



O what is yoin: fortime, my pretty maid, 
O what is your fortime, my pretty maid?" 
"My face is my fortune, sir," she said, "sir," she said, 

My face is my fortime, sir," she said. 



4( 



"Then I cannot marry you, my pretty maid, 

I cannot marry you, my pretty maid," 

"O nobody axed you, sir," she said, "sir," she said, 

"0 nobody axed you, sir," she said. 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 231 

113 

BILLY BOY 



It 



O where have you been Billy Boy, Billy Boy, 
O where have you been, charming Billy?'' 
"I have been for a wife, she's the treasure of my life, 
She's a young thing but can't leave her mammie 



)7 



"Can she make a cherry pie, Billy Boy, Billy Boy, 
Can she make a cherry pie, charming Billy?" 

"She can make a cherry pie quick as cat can wink her 
eye. 
She's a young thing but can't leave her mammie." 

"Can she make a feather bed, Billy Boy, Billy Boy, 
Can she make a feather bed, charming Billy?" 

"She can make it very neat from the head imto the 
feet. 
She's a yoimg thing but can't leave her mammie." 



"Can she make a loaf of bread, Billy Boy, Billy Boy 
Can she make a loaf of bread, charming Billy?" 

"She can make a loaf of bread with a night cap on 
her head, 
She's a young thing but can't leave her mammie." 

"Can she milk a muHe cow, Billy Boy, Billy Boy, 
Can she milk a muhe cow, charming Billy ? " 



» 



232 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

''She can milk a mulie cow if her mammie shows her 
how. 
She's a young thing but can't leave her mammie 

114 

POOR ROBIN 

Poor Robin was dead and lay in his grave, 

Lay in his grave, lay in his grave, 
Poor Robin was dead and lay in his grave, 

00. 

They planted an apple tree over his head, 

Over his head, over his head. 
They planted an apple tree over his head, 

0. 

When the apples were ripe and ready to fall, 

Ready to fall, ready to fall. 
When the apples were ripe and ready to fall, 

00 0. 

An old woman came and gathered them up. 
Gathered them up, gathered them up. 

An old woman came and gathered them up, 
0. 

Poor Robin jumped up and gave her a thump, 
Gave her a thump, gave her a thump. 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 233 

Poor Robin jumped up and gave her a thump. 
0. 

It made the old woman go flippety jflop, 

FHppety flop, flippety flop, 
It made the old woman go flippety flop, 

0000. 

And as she ran off her apron string broke, 

Her apron string broke, her apron string broke, 

And as she ran off her apron string broke. 
0. 

If you want any more just sing it yourself, 

Sing it yourself, sing it yourseK; 
If you want any more just sing it yourself, 

0000. 

115 

BABES IN THE WOODS 

My dear you must know that a long time ago 

There was two little children whose names I don't 

know. 
Who were taken away on a bright autumn day. 
And lost in the woods I have heard people say. 

Now when it was night very sad were their phght, 
The stars did not shine and the moon hid her Ught, 



234 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

Then they sobbed and they sighed and sadly they cried, 
And the poor little things at last lay down and died. 

Two robins so red when they saw them he dead 
Brought beech and oak leaves and over them spread; 
And all day long the branches among 
They sang to them softly and this was their song: 

Poor little babes in the woods, 
Poor Uttle babes in the woods, 
O who will come and find, 
Poor Uttle babes in the woods! 

116 

IN GOOD OLD COLONY TIMES 

In good old colony times, where we Uved mider the 
King, 

Three roguish chaps fell into mishaps 
Because they could not sing. 

Three roguish chaps fell into mishaps 
Because they could not sing. 

The first he was a miller, and the second he was a weaver, 

And the third he was a httle tailor, 
Three roguish chaps together, 

And the third he was a httle tailor, 
Three roguish chaps together. 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 235> 

The miller he stole corn, and the weaver he stole yarn^ 

And the Uttle tailor stole broadcloth 
For to keep these three rogues warm. 

And the Kttle tailor stole broadcloth 
For to keep these three rogues warm. 

Now the miller got drowned in his dam, and the weaver 
got hung in his yarn, 

And the devil clapt his claws on the Kttle tailor 
With the broadcloth under his arm. 

And the devil clapt his claws on the little tailor, 
With the broadcloth under his arm. \ 

117 

LET'S GO TO THE WOODS 

"Let's go to the woods," says Richard to Robin, 
"Let's go to the woods," says Robin to Bobin, 
"Let's go to the woods," says Johnny alone, 
"Let's go to the woods," says every one. 



K 



What to do there?" says Richard to Robin, 
"What to do there?" says Robin to Bobin, 
"What to do there?" says Johnny alone, 
"What to do there?" says everyone. 

"Shoot at my wren," says Richard to Robin„ 
"Shoot at my wren," says Robin to Bobin, 
"Shoot at my wren," says Johnny alone, 
"Shoot at my wren," says every one. 



236 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

"What if she's dead?'' says Richard to Robin, 
''What if she's dead?" says Robin to Bobin, 
"What if she's dead?" says Johnny alone, 
"What if she's dead?" says every one. 

"How would you get her home?" says Richard to 

Robin, 
"How would you get her home?" says Robin to Bobin, 
"How would you get her home?" says Johnny alone, 
"How would you get her home?" says every one. 



€C 



A cart and six horses," says Richard to Robin, 
"A cart and six Horses," says Robin to Bobin, 
"A cart and six horses," says Johnny alone, 
"A cart and six horses," says every one. 

118 

^ I BOUGHT ME A WIFE 

I bought me a wife the tenth of Jime, 
Nickety nackety, now, now, now, 

I brought her home by the Kght of the moon. 
High, willy, wally, and Jenny bang. 
Doodle, sandy go restego, now, now, now. 

I bought two cows, they both were good, 
I told her to milk whichever she would. 

For want of a chm-n she used the old man's boot. 
For want of a dasher she used his foot. 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 237 

She made some cheese and hung it on a pin. 
The grease ran out and the dirt sucked in. 

The old book Kes on the shelf. 

If you want any more you can sing it yourself. 

119 

WE'LL ALL GO DOWN TO ROWSER'S 

We'll all go down to Rowser's, 

We'll all go down to Rowser's, 

We'll all go down to Rowser's, 
For there they keep the beer, 
For there they keep the beer, 
For there they keep the beer, 

We'll all go down to Rowser's 
For there they keep the beer. 

My father and mother were Irish, 
My father and mother were Irish, 
My father and mother were Irish, 

And I was Irish too. 

And I was Irish too. 

And I was Irish too. 
My father and mother were Irish 

And I was Irish too. 

They kept the pig in the parlor. 
They kept the pig in the parlor. 
They kept the pig in the parlor, 



238 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

For that was Irish too, 
For that was Irish too, 
For that was Irish too. 
They kept the pig in the parlor, 
For that was Irish too. 

120 

SWEET FIELDS OF VIOLO 

How happy I was on my father's farm, 

Sweet fields of Violo, 
Tending to my father's horses 
That I fed in the barns of Violo. 

And a gee ho here and a gee ho there. 

Here a gee and there a gee, and 
O pretty maids, won't you come and go with me 

To the sweet fields of Violo! 

How happy I was on my father's farm, 

Sweet fields of Violo, 
Tending to my father's cows 
That I milked in the yards of Violo. 

And a snke, suke here, and a suke, suke there, 

Here a suke and there a suke, and 

A gee ho here and a gee ho there. 

Here a gee and there a gee, and 
O pretty maids, won't you come and go with me 

To the sweet fields of Violo! 

How happy I was on my father's farm, 
Sweet fields of Violo, 



AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 239 

Tending to my father's pigs 

That I fattened in the pens of Violo. 

And a boo hoo here and a boo hoo there, 

Here a boo and there a boo, and 

A suke suke here and a suke suke there. 

Here a suke and there a suke, and 

A gee ho here and a gee ho there. 

Here a gee and there a gee, and 
O pretty maids, won't you come and go with me 

To the sweet fields of Violo! 

How happy I was on my father's farm, 

Sweet fields of Violo, 
Tending to my father's sheep 
That ran in the vales of Violo. 

And a bleat bleat here, and a bleat bleat there, 

Here a bleat and there a bleat, and 

A boo hoo here and a boo hoo there, 

Here a boo and there a boo, and 

A suke suke here and a suke suke there, 

Here a suke and there a suke, and 

A gee ho here and a gee ho there, 

Here a gee and there a gee, and 
O pretty maids, won't you come and go with me 

To the sweet fields of Violo! 

How happy I was on my father's farm, 

Sweet fields of Violo, 
Tending to my father's geese 
That swam in the ponds of Violo. 

With a shoo shoo here and a shoo shoo there, 



240 AMERICAN BALLADS AND SONGS 

Here a shoo and there a shoo, and 
A bleat bleat here and a bleat bleat there, 
Here a bleat and there a bleat, and 
A boo hoo here and a boo hoo there, 
Here a boo and there a boo, and 
A suke suke here and a suke suke there. 
Here a suke and there a suke, and 
A gee ho here and a gee ho there, 
Here a gee and there a gee, and 
O pretty maids, won't you come and go with me 
To the sweet fields of Violo! 

How happy I was on my father's farm. 
Sweet fields of Violo. 

Tending to my father's chickens 

That laid in the nests of Violo. 

A cackle cackle here and a cackle cackle there, 

Here a cackle, there a cackle, and 

A shoo shoo here and a shoo shoo there. 

Here a shoo and there a shoo, and 

A bleat bleat here and a bleat bleat there. 

Here a bleat and there a bleat, and 

A boo hoo here and a boo hoo there. 

Here a boo and there a boo, and 

A suke suke here and a suke suke there, 

Here a suke and there a suke, and 

A gee ho here and a gee ho there, 

Here a gee and there a gee, and 

O pretty maids, won't you come and go with me 
To the sweet fields of Violo ! 



NOTES 



NOTES 

1. (A) Johnny Randall. Compare Lord Randal, Child, English 
and Scottish Popular Ballads , No. 12. Text recovered by Professor 
H. C. House of the University of Maryland from a railroad camp 
at Geary, Colorado, in 1901. See Modern Larpgiiage Notes, vol. 17, 
p. 14, 1902. 

(B) Jimmy Randolph. Sung by Mrs. Dora Shelton, Allenstand, 
North Carolina, in 1916. See Campbell and Sharp, English Folk 
Songs from the Southern Appalachians, p. 22. 

2. (A) Lord Lovel. Text obtained from S. J. Mason of Lincoln, 
Nebraska, in 1906, who "learned it at Aledo, Illinois, about 1863." 
Child, No. 75. 

(B) Lord Lover. Text obtained from Mrs. Jeanetta Gear of 
Junction, Wyoming, in 1914. 

3. (A) Barbery Allen. Text as sung and transcribed by Miss 
Stella Cotton of Miller County, Missouri. See H. M. Belden, "Old 
Country Songs in Missouri," Journal of American Folk-Lore, vol. 
19, p. 287. 1906. Child, No. 84. 

(B) Barbara Allen. Text from North Carolina. Secured 
by Miss Mary Crawford of the State Normal School at Kearney, 
Nebraska, in 1913. 

4. (A) The Two Sisters. Sung by Mrs. Jane Gentry of Hot 
Springs, North Carolina, in 1916. See Campbell and Sharp, English 
Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians (1917), p. 16. Child, 
No. 10. This ballad is known to Miss Marjorie Buicham of Lincoln, 
Nebraska, as a eucalele song. 

(B) The Old Man in the North Country. Text brought to 
Clinton County, Missouri, from Kentucky. See H. M. Belden, "Old 
Country Ballads in Missouri," Journal of American Folk-Lore, voL 
19, p. 233. 1906. 

5. (A) The Jewish Lady. Compare Sir Hugh, or The Jew's 
Daughter Child, No. 155. Secured by Mrs. Pearl H. Bartholomew 
from Mrs. Flo Keller, both of Warren, Indiana. See A. H. Tolman, 
" Some Songs Traditional in the United States," Journal of American 
Folk-Lore, vol. 29, p. 165. 1916. 

(B) The Jew Lady. Text secured at the University ol Vir- 
ginia by C. Alphonso Smith. It was learned at Montgomery, Ala- 
bama. See "Ballads Surviving in the United States," The Musical 
Quarterly, January, 1916, p. 16. Title supplied. 

6. (A) The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin. Text secured by 
H. M. Belden in 1916 from Mrs. Eva Warner Case of Kansas City, 
"as known to her in her childhood in Harrison County, Missouri, 
about 1890." Child, No. 277. 

243 



244 NOTES 

(B) Dandoo. Text from Mrs. Mary A. Sexson of Hastings, 
Nebraska, in 1917, as sung by her husband, J. J. Sexson. 

7. (A) Children's Song. Compare The Wife of Usher's WeUt 
Child, No. 79. Text secured by Walter Morris Hart from Mrs. 
Agnes McDougall Henry, who had it from western North Carolina. 
See G. L. Eattredge, "Ballads and Songs," Journal of American 
Folk-Lore, vol. 30, p. 306. 1917. 

(B) Three Little Babes. Secured by L. A. Quivey when a 
student at the University of Nebraska, as known to his family in 
Burt County, Nebraska, in 1914. 

8. The Cruel Brother. Text from Boston Massachusetts. See 
Phillips Barry, "The Ballad of the Cruel Brother," Journal of Amer- 
ican Folk-Lore, vol. 28, p. 300. 1915. Child, No. 11. 

9. Edward. Sung by Mrs. Jane Gentry at Hot Springs, North 
Carolina, in 1916. Campbell and Sharp, English Folk Songs from the 
Southern Appalachians, p. 26. 

10. The Lowlands Low. Compare The Sweet Trinity, Child, 
No. 286. Sung by James R. Barron of Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1919. 
Mr. Barron is from the Shetland Islands. Secured by L. C. Wimberly. 

11. Three Sailor Boys. Compare The Mermaid, Child, No. 289. 
From Mrs. Jeanetta Gear, Junction, Wyoming, 1914. 

12. Lord Thomas. Compare Lord Thomas and Fair Annet, 
Child, No. 73. Secured by Miss Florence Grimm of Lincoln, Ne- 
braska, in 1913, from her grandfather, who brought it from Maryland. 

13. The Hangman's Song. Compare The Maid Freed from the 
Gallows, Child, No. 95. Text from Lonesome Tunes by Loraine 
Wyman and Howard Brockway (1916), p. 44. From Ejiott County, 
Kentucky. 

14. Lord Bayham. Compare Young Beichan, Child, No. 53. 
Text from a manuscript book of songs, made from oral transcription 
in Indiana before the Civil War, in the possession of Edna Fulton 
Waterman of Lincoln, Nebraska. The American variants of this 
ballad have many titles, "Young Bakeman," "Lord Batesman," 
"Lord Bateman," "Lord Bacon," "Lord Benham," "The Turkish 
Lady," etc. This ballad was a favorite with Dickens. Much of its 
currency is due to the fact that it was utilized with effect in the once 
popular play of Rosedale. See G. L. Kittredge in Harvard Library 
Notes, January, 1921, p. 62. 

15. Little Matthy Groves. Compare Little Musgrave and Lady 
Barnard, Child, No. 81. Sung by Mrs. Jane Gentry of Hot Springs, 
North Carolina, in 1916. Campbell and Sharp, English Folk Songs 
from the Southern Appalachians, p. 79. This ballad has been found 
in Nova Scotia by W. Roy Mackenzie, by H. G. Shearin in the Cum- 
berland Mountains, and by C. Alphonso Smith ("Little Mosie Grove 
and Lord Burnett's Wife," etc.) in Virginia. 



NOTES 245 

16. Sweet William. Compare Fair Margaret and Sweet William^ 
Child, No. 74, Text from Josephine McGill's Folk Songs of the 
Kentucky Mountains (1917), p. 69. 

17. The House Carpenter. Compare James Harris, or The 
Dcemon Lover, Child, No. 243. Text obtained in 1908 from S. J. 
Mason of Lincoln, Nebraska, who learned it as a boy at Aledo, 
Illinois. 

18. Two Little Boys. Compare The Two Brothers, Child, No. 
49. Secured in 1909 by her daughter from Mrs. Eliza Shelman of 
Hansen's Ferry, Washington, who learned it in Nodaway County, 
Missouri. 

19. The Cherry Tree Carol. Text from Josephine McGiira 
Folk Songs of the Kentucky Mountains, p. 59. Child, No. 54. 

20. The False Knight. Compare Child, No. 3. Secured by 
H. M. Belden in 1916 from Miss J. D. Johns of St. Charles, Missouri. 
She learned it from her uncle, Mr. Douglas Voss Martin, who learned 
it when a boy in Virginia from his grandmother, a Scotchwoman* 
See Kittredge, ** Ballads and Songs," Journal of American Folk-Lore, 
vol. 30, p. 286. 1917. 

21. (A) The Drowsy Sleeper. Text from a manuscript book 
of songs from oral transcription, the property of Edna Fulton Water- 
man of Lincoln, Nebraska. For this piece, see H. M. Belden, Archiv 
fur das Studium der neueren Sprachen, vol. 119, pp. 430-431. 

(B) Willie and Mary. Text known to Mrs. I. E. Diehl of 
Robinson, Utah, 1914. 

22. (A) The Bamboo Briars. Text from H. M. Belden, who had 
it from Miss Frances Barbour of Washington University, who had it 
from the singing of Minnie Doyle of Arlington, Phelps County, 
Missouri, in 1917. For the history of this song, and variant texts, see 
H. M. Belden, "Boccaccio, Hans Sachs, and The Bramble Briar,'* 
Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, vol. 33, 
p. 327. 1918. 

(B) The Apprentice Boy. Text of H. G. Shearin. See 
"British Ballads in the Cumberland Mountains,'* The Sewanee 
Review, vol. 19, p. 321. July, 1911. 

23. (A) The Boston Burglar. Text obtained by L. C. Wimberly 
from Mrs. E. N. Hardin, of Missouri Valley, Iowa, in 1916. Com- 
pare The Sheffield Apprentice, Campbell and Sharp, English Folk 
Songs from ihp. Southern Appalachians, p. 278. A text of this song 
from Michigan adapts it, with a minimum of changes, to fit a local 
crime and criminal in Michigan. 

(B) Charleston. Text obtained from Harry Gear, Junction, 
Wyoming, 1914. 

24. (A) The Butcher's Boy. Text obtained by Lillian Gear 
Boswell at Hartville, Wyoming, 1914. Related to The Brisk Young 



246 NOTES 



Lover f Broadwood, Traditional Songs and Carols (1908), p. 92. See 
also, Campbell and Sharp, p. 286. 

(B) There Is a Tavern in the Town. From a manuscript 
book of songs in the possession of L. C. Wimberly. 1916. This 
well-known college song is a variant of, or is somehow related to. 
The Brisk Young Lover and The Butcher's Boy. 

25. The Death op a Romish Lady. From a manuscript book of 
orally transcribed pieces, the property of Edna Fulton Waterman of 
Lincoln, Nebraska. This piece has been found also in Missouri and 
in the Cumberland Mountains. It is the "It was a lady's daughter 
of Paris properly" mentioned in Fletcher's Knight of the Burning 
Pestle (1613), V. iii. A text from the time of Charles II appears in 
The Roxburgh Ballads^ vol. I, p. 43. 

26. Johnny and Betsy. Text of Mrs. Mary F. Lindsay of Hebron, 
Nebraska. 1915. Compare Firth, An American Garland (1915), 
p. 69. A text from California is printed in The Journal of American 
Folk-Lore, vol. 19, p. 130, but the account there given of the origin 
of the song is doubtful. 

27. The Soldier. Text from Mrs. B. B. Wimberly, 1916, who 
learned it in Louisiana. Compare Campbell and Sharp, The Lady 
and the Dragoon, p. 161. The same story is told in the last part of 
The Masterpiece of Love Songs in John Ashton's A Century of Ballads 
(1887), p. 164. Professor Tolman has pointed out that the story 
somewhat resembles that of Erlinton, Child, No. 8. 

28. The Farmer's Boy. Text from Miss Frances Francis of 
Cheyenne, Wyoming, who had it from her father, who described it 
as "brought from Newcastle, England, as early as 1870." Known 
also in Missouri. 

29. The Rich Younq Farmer. From Edna Fulton Waterman's 
manuscript book of ballads, in which it is transcribed as "Written 
by Marcelia Polk at E. Spencer's school, the 23rd of February. 1857." 
Compare H. G. Shearin's William Hall from the Cumberland moun- 
tains. For ballads current in America on the theme of the returned 
lover, see H. M. Belden, Archiv fur das Studium der neueren Sprachen 
und Literaturen, vol. 120, p. 62. 

30. The Lover's Return. From Mrs. Waterman's manuscript 
book of songs. Reproduced literatim. A version of the widely 
current The Banks of Claudy. See Journal of American Folk-Lore 
vol. 26, p. 362. 1913. 

31. The Prentice Boy. From Mrs. Waterman's manuscript 
book of ballads from Indiana, in which it bears the date 1844. Repro- 
duced literatim. Compare The Lady and the Prentice, Baring-Gould, 
Songs of the West (1913), p. 219. For American variants see The 
Journal of American Folk-Lore, vol. 26, p. 363. 1913. 

32. The Constant Farmer's Son. Text from L. C. Wimberly of 



NOTES 247 



Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1916. H. M. Belden prints a text in The 
Sewanee Review, vol. 19, p. 222, and in the Publications of the Modem 
Language Association of America, vol. 33, p. 367, 1918; and W. R. 
Mackenzie in The Quest of the Ballad. 

33. MoLLiE Bond. Miss Loraine Wyman's text, printed by G. L. 
Kittredge in the Journal of American Folk-Lore, vol. 30, p. 359. 
Compare "Polly Bam" in The Shooting of His Dear, Campbell and 
Sharp, p. 159. Known also as *' Polly Vann," "Molly Baun," "Polly 
Vaughn," etc. According to Professor Kittredge, this piece is at 
least as old as the eighteenth century. Possibly it is much older. 
The transformation of the girl into a swan and her appearance in 
court in some of the British versions (instead of as a ghost in certain 
American versions) point to early origin. See At the Setting of the 
Sun in Baring-Gould's Songs of the West, p. 129. 

34. My Father's Gray Mare. Text obtained from Vivian 
Cleaver Cleveland of Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1917. Compare Barings 
Gould, Songs of the West, p. 105 (1913), Kidson, Traditional Tunes, 
etc. 

35. Mary O* The Wild Moor. Text transcribed by Mrs. Nellie 
B. Pickup of Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1914, from the singing of her 
mother, who learned it in her childhood in New York. It is included 
in Helen K. Johnson's Our Familiar Songs (1904), p. 303. See alsa 
Kidson's Traditional Tunes (1891), p. 77. 

36. Father Grumble. Text obtained from Miss Jeanne Allen 
of Seneca, Kansas, in 1914. Known also as "Old Grumble," "The 
Drummer and his Wife" (Campbell and Sharp, p. 308), etc. The 
eong is no recent one. See Kittredge's annotation, Journal of Arner^ 
lean Folk-Lore, vol. 26, p. 366, 1913. 

37. Guy Fawkes. Text known to A. J. Leach of Oakdale, Ante- 
lope County, Nebraska, 1914, who learned it as a boy in Michigan. 
A much better known Guy Fawkes song begins, "O don't you re- 
member the fifth of November." 

38. William Reilly's Courtship. From Edna Fulton Water- 
man's manuscript ballad book. 

39. Jack Riley. Obtained by Frances Botkin and Zora Schaupp 
from Mrs. Adna Dobson of Lincoln, Nebraska, who learned it in 
England. 

40. The Battle of Point Pleasant. Song included with other 
traditional songs in Kate Aplington's Pilgrims of the Plains (1913), 
p. 209. She says of its singers: "There are many among them who 
cannot read, and for those who can there are no newspapers or books. 
The time would hang heavy on their hands if one did not take it 
upon himself to help entertain the others. They are capital story 
tellers and they are all of them singers, and they give themselves up 



248 NOTES 



to the spell of the music with a whole-hearted enthusiasm that gives 
to their rudest ballads something of charm and power." 

41. James Bird. This song of a hero of the war of 1812 was known 
to S. B. Pound of Lincoln, Nebraska, who brought it from Ontario 
County, New York. H. M. Belden has a copy from Clinton County, 
Missouri, written down in 1915. It was composed in 1814 by 
Charles Miner, of Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania. 

42. (A) O Johnny Dear, Why Did You Go? Secured by Marie 
Gladys Hay den of Hobson, Montana, in 1914 from E. B. Lyon, who 
reported the song as he heard it sung in a log schoolhouse in Illinois 
in the year 1857. This song dates from the eighteenth century and 
grew out of a local event. See "Elegy of a Young Man Bitten by a 
Rattlesnake" in E. E. Hale's New England History in Ballads (1904), 
p. 86. See also The Journal of American Folk-Lore, vol. 13, pp. 
105-112; vol. 18, pp. 295-302; vol. 22, pp. 366-67; vol. 28, p. 169. 
The original text is in existence, and the variants of this song, from 
different regions well exhibit what has happened to it in more than 
a century of oral, transmission and migration. 

(B) [WooDviLLE Mound.] Text secured for H. M. Belden by 
Miss G. M. Hamilton from Marie Walt, one of her pupils in the West 
Plains, Missouri, High School in 1909, who knew it as sung to her in 
her childhood by her mother. Title supplied. 

(C) In Springfield Mountain. Text sent to H. M. Belden 
by Miss G. M. Hamilton, who secured it from one of her students at 
the Kirksville Normal School, Missouri, in 1911. 

(D) Springfield Mountain. Text secured by Frances 
Botkin and Zora Schaupp from Mrs. Adna Dobson of Lincoln, 
Nebraska, in 1920. 

43. (A) The Jealous Lover. From a manuscript book of ballads 
in the possession of L. C. Wimberly, 1916. This is one of the most 
widespread of American ballads. It is current under many names, as 
"Lorella," "Floella," "Florilla," "Flora Ella," "Poor Lurella." 
**Poor Lora," "Poor Loila," "Nell," etc. Professor J. H. Cox has 
I)ointed out that the West Virginia "Pearl Bryan" is an adaptation 
of this song, with a minimum of verbal changes, to fit the murder 
of a gill of that name which occurred near Fort Thomas, Kentucky, 
in 1896. The song had an ephemeral popularity after the execution 
of the murderers. 

(B) The Weeping Willow. Obtained by LilUan Gear Bos- 
well from the singing of Albert Clay of Junction, Wyoming, in 1914. 

44. Young Charlotte. Text obtained by Marie Gladys Hayden 
of Hobson, Montana, from the singing of a girl from Plain ville, 
Kansas, in 1914. For the history of this song, which was composed 
in Bensontown, Vermont, before 1835 and grew out of a local event, 
see Phillips Barry, Journal of American Folk-Lore, vol. 25, p. 156, 



NOTES 249 

1912. Mr. Barry believes that it was carried over the country as its 
author went to Ohio and later to Illinois, on his way to join the Mor- 
mons in Utah. It is widely current. 

45. (A) The Old Shawnee. Text from a manuscript book in the 
possession of L. C. Wimberly, 1916. 

(B) On the Banks of the Old Pedee. The same song, as 
obtained from Lillian Gear Boswell at Junction, Wyoming, 1915. 

46. The Young Man Who Wouldn't Hoe Corn. Text secured 
from Bessie Aten when a student at the University of Nebraska in 
1914. The song is sometimes known as "Harm Link." See Camp- 
bell and Sharp, English Folk Songs of the Southern Appalachians, 
p. 314; Journal of American Folk Lore, vol. 29, p. 181. A. H. Tol- 
man's text of the same piece goes under the name of The Lazy Man, 

47. Wicked Polly. Text from E. F. Piper, who had it from 
Mrs. Lydia Hinshaw of Richland, Iowa. The second text is one of 
four printed by P. Barry, Modern Langvxige Notes, vol. 28, p. 1. A. 
H. Tolman has a version in The Journal of American Folk-Lore, vol, 
29, p. 192, 1916. 

48. Johnny Sands. The first text is from a manuscript book of 
songs obtained by Grace Munson of Chicago from Mrs. Woodruff of 
Weston Road, Wellesley, in 1916. The second text is from Harry 
Gear, of Junction, Wyoming, 1914. For this song see A. H. Tolman, 
"Some Songs Traditional in the United States," Journal oj American 
Folk-Lore, vol. 29, p. 178, with Kittredge's annotations. It belongs 
to the forties of the nineteenth century. It achieved enormous 
vogue in this country, says Professor Kittredge, by forming part of 
the repertory of the Hutchinson Family, the Continental Vocalists, 
and other singing "troupes." 

49. Fuller and Warren. Obtained from Jane Andrews of 
Cambridge, Nebraska, in 1915. Miss Andrews made this comment: 
" This song was sung in 1874 by some young men in western Nebraska 
who had come from the vicinity in which this really happened." 

50. Poor Goins. Obtained by G. L. Kittredge from Loraine 
Wyman "as sung by Rob Morgan, Hindman, Kentucky, in 1916." 
See "Songs and Ballads," Journal of American Folk-Lore, vol. 30, 
p. 361, 1917. 

51. Poor Omie. From the singing of Mr. Hilliard Smith at Hind- 
man, Kentucky, 1909. See Campbell and Sharp, English Folk Songs 
from the Southern Appalachians, p. 228. Professor H. M. Belden 
has a copy of Omie Wise (Poor Omie) from Earl Cruikshank, with the 
following account: "This song was handed down to my mother 
through her grandfather who came from Virginia. My mother says 
that he was acquainted with Omie Wise and had danced with her and 
went in the same circle with her. He described her as being a small 
light-complexioned girl. One time when he sang this song at a 



250 NOTES 



literary meeting or singing school in Indiana, there was a stranger 
at the meeting who got up and left the meeting and skipped the 
country. Many people thought perhaps this man might have been 
the Lewis who murders Omie in the song." 

62. Silver Dagger. The first text was secured by Lillian Gear 
Boswell from the singing of Myrtle Smith Badger of Junction, Wyo- 
ming, in 1914. The second text was learned in Mackinaw, Illinois* 
by Mrs. Mary F. Lindsay of Hebron, Nebraska. 

63. The Aged Indian. Text from Mrs. E. N. Hardin of Missouri 
Valley, Iowa, 1916. A fragment of the same song from Red Cloud, 
Nebraska (1915) bears the title "Uncle Tohido." H. M. Belden'a 
Missouri text is named "Uncle Tahia." 

64. Calomel. Obtained by E. F. Piper of Iowa City from a 
manuscript book of ballads in the possession of Mrs. Lydia Hinshaw 
of Richland, Iowa, as it was sung by the latter's mother when she 
came from Ohio to Iowa in 1840. The song is still alive in fragment, 
or shortened versions. A copy in a manuscript book from Indianaa 
the property of Edna Fulton Waterman, has for the date of its tran- 
scription 1844. Possibly of British importation. 

65. The Creole Girl. Obtained by E. F. Piper from Ival 
McPeak, who learned it from the singing of his father in Iowa. 

66. The Blue and the Gray. Text from L. C. Wimberly'a 
manuscript book, 1916. One of the most widely current of the 
songs remaining from the Cuban War. 

67. The Gambler. Secured for H. M. Belden by Miss Frances 
Barbour, Washington University, from the singing of Minnie Doge 
at Arlington, Phelps County, Missouri, in 1917. 

68. In the Baggage Coach Ahead. Text obtained from Blanche 
Pope of Red Cloud, Nebraska, in 1914. According to The Literary 
Digestt November 13, 1915, In the Baggage Coach Ahead was one of 
the songs sung in vaudeville circuits to the accompaniment of colored 
pictures thrown on the screen — "pictures as honest and whole- 
hearted in their coloring as they were heart-rending in subject." 

69. Casey Jones. Phillips Barry writes of this song that Casey 
Jones was John Luther Jones, engineer of the Chicago and New 
Orleans Limited, who was killed in a wreck March 18, 1900. The 
song was composed by a negro, Wallace Saunders. See The Railroad 
Man's Magazine, November, 1910. The version printed here is 
from the issue of May 1918 of the same periodical. The vaudeville 
version was published in 1909 as the composition of T. L. Seibert and 
E. Newton. It was one of the "hits** of the day. This accounts 
for the currency of the ballad. 

60. The Ladt Elgin. Text as sung on a ranch at Junction, 
Wyoming. Obtained by Lillian Gear Boswell in 1914. This song 
is by Henry C. Work and commemorates a wreck on Lake Michigan 



NOTES 251 



in 1860. The singers had no knowledge whatever of its authorship 
and origin. 

61. The Jamestown Flood. Text known to May B. Wimberly of 
Lincoln, 1917. The subject is plainly the Johnstown flood of 1890, 
but the title as given by Mrs. Wimberly is retained. 

62. The Milwaukee Fire. Text obtained by L. C. Wimberly 
about 1916 from M. Boynton, Missouri Valley, Iowa. 

63. The Fatal Wedding. Text obtained from Blanche Pope of 
Red Cloud, Nebraska, about 1914. Still popular in many regions. 

64. Jesse James. Text known to Professor Reed Smith (1920) 
of the University of South Carolina, as current in that region. The 
second text is from Iowa, and was secured by L. C. Wimberly of the 
University of Nebraska in 1916. A local ballad which is an adapta- 
tion of Jesse James is The Assassinatioh of J. B. Marcum^ printed by 
William Aspinwall Bradley in *' Song-Ballets and Devil's Ditties," 
Harper's Magazine^ May, 1915, p. 901. The origin of Jesse James 
is unknown. It is possible that it is itself an adaptation. 

65. (A) Charles Guiteau. Text secured by Professor E. F. 
Piper of the University of Iowa, from a student who had it from 
South Dakota. The origin of this song is unknown. Dr. Carl 
Van Doren says that he often heard it in Illinois during the 90'a 
from his father. 

(B) The Death of Young Bendall. Text from Miss Agnes 
Andrews of Cambridge, Nebraska. 1918. She writes of the piece 
as follows: "A young man by the name of Bendall whose parents 
were supposed to be living in England in wealth came to Canada 
about the year 1890 and settled near St. Thomas, Ontario. He soon 
made friends with a young married man by the name of J. J. Bircnell. 
Birchell, knowing that Bendall carried much gold on his person, 
enticed him out on a hunting expedition and very coolly shot him. 
The lines of Young Bendall were composed and set to music by a 
young school teacher in the neighborhood where the tragedy took 
place." 

A third piece of the same pattern is John T. Williams, A 
fragment of it from Mrs. E. N. Hardin (1916) of Missouri Valley, 
Iowa, who had it from a ranchman at Cambridge, Nebraska, who 
had it from Canada, begins as follows: 

My name it is John T. Williams, 

My name I'll never deny, 
I'll leave my dear old parents 

To suffer and to die. 
For murdering .... 
Upon the scaffold high. 
Their testimony is to the effect that it was sung in the seventies 
before the death of Garfield (1881). Other pieces from the same 



252 NOTES 

singers are old, or are closer to their Old World originals than many 
American texts, so that it is possible that John T. Williams, or some 
other predecessor of Charles Guiteau and Young Bendall, was the 
model for these pieces. The song is of a staple pattern and, in i 
original form, might belong either to the Old or the New World, 

66. Sam Bass. Text from Lomax's Cowboy Songs, p. 149. N. H. 
Thorpe, Songs of the Cowboys (p. 135), credits the authorship t 
John Denton, Gainesville, Texas, 1879. 

67. Jack Williams. From a manuscript book of ballads in the 
possession of L. C. Wimberly, 1916. Probably of British importa- 
tion. In another Nebraska text, the place names are changed to 
••Bowery Street" and "Sing Sing." 

68. Young McFee. Text secured by L. C. Wimberly from Mrs. 
E. N. Hardin of Missouri Valley, Iowa, 1916. Professor A. H. 
Tolman prints a much longer text in The Journal of American Folk^ 
Lore, vol. 29, p. 186, with the following comment: "This text was 
obtained through Mrs. Pearl H. Bartholomew from Mrs. M. M. 
Soners, both of Warren, Indiana. The mother of Mrs. Soners sang 
it to her almost fifty years ago in Ohio. Mrs. Soners states that 
the poem records an actual occurrence and that her mother knew 
Hettie Stout well." Like The Death of Garfield, this may be an 
indigenous ballad, or merely an American adaptation of some older 
piece. Note the "ten thousand pounds" of the last stanza. 

69. Bonny Black Bess. Text from Mrs. John Leslie of Stanford, 
Montana, secured by Mabel Conrad Sullivan of Winnett, Montana, 
in 1915. A song having the same title and the same hero, but other- 
wise not identical, appears in Lomax's Cowboy Songs, p. 194. 

70. TuRPiN AND THE LAWYER. A Nova Scotia text. See W. R. 
Mackenzie, The Quest of the Ballad (1919), p. 144. Fragments of 
the same song, brought from New York, are known in Nebraska. 

71. Jack Donahoo. Text from Lomax's Cowboy Songs, p. 64, 
Practically the same text appears in Nova Scotia. See Mackenzie. 
The Quest of the Ballad, p. 66. 

72. Captain Kidd. Text from Pilgrims of the Plains (1913) by 
Mrs. Kate A. Aplington of Council Groves, Kansas, p. 56. This 
book contains a number of old songs. Fragments of Captain Kidd 
are still current in scattered places. 

73. Texas Rangers. Text obtained from Mrs. Eliza Shelman of 
Hansen's Ferry, Washington, in 1908. It was learned by her in 
Nodaway County, Missouri, in her childhood. 

74. The Little Old Sod Shanty on My Claim. Text obtained 
from Lillian Gear Boswell of Wheatland, Wyoming, 1914. This is 
an adaptation of the popular negro or psuedo-negro song "The Little 
Old Log Cabin in the Lane," by Will S. Hays. According to A. J. 
Leach, the historian of Antelope County, Nebraska, the words were 



JO 



NOTES 253 



printed on the backs of cards with the instructions that they were to 
be sung to the melody of " The Little Old Log Cabin." On the front 
of the cards were pictures of a sod shanty. See Modern Langiuige 
Notes t January, 1918. Mr. F. W. Schaupp of Lincoln, Nebraska, 
says that the adaptation was made by a Nebraskan of his acquain- 
tance, Emery Miller, when he was holding down a Nebraska claim 
in the eighties. Most texts of the song come from the Central 
Western region. It still has no little currency. 
■ 75. CoBOWY Song. Obtained by Frances Francis of Cheyenne 
from Winthrop Condict of Saratoga, Wyoming, in 1911. It is biiilt 
upon the religious song, Jn the Sweet By and By. Mr. Lomax prints 
a sUghtly different text, The Cowhoy^s Dream in Cowboy SongSt p. 18. 
N. H. Thorpe, Songs of the Cowboys (p. 40) ascribes the authoiship 
to the ** father of Captain Roberts, of the Texas Rangers." His 
copy was given to him by Wait Rogers in 1898. 

76. The Old Chisholm Trail. Text from Lomax's Cowboy Songs, 
p. 58. See also Thorpe, Songs of the Cowboys, p. 109. 

77. The Dying Cowboy. Text secured by Lillian Gear Boswell 
of Wheatland, Wyoming, in 1914. Brought from Illinois to Wyoming. 
This is an adaptation of an Irish song. The Unfortunate Rake, dating 
from the eighteenth century. The traces of a military funeral 
remaining in the chorus of some texts are somewhat incongruous in a 
cowboy song. For the history of the song see Phillips Barry, Journal 
of American Folk-Lore, vol. 24, p. 341. The Dying Cowboy is widely 
current in the Western states. Adaptation credited by N. H. 
Thorpe, Songs of the Cowboys (p. 41), to Troy Hale, Battle Creek, 
Nevada. 

78. Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie. Also known as The 
Dying Cowboy. Text obtained by Mabel Conrad Sullivan from Mrs. 
John Leslie of Stanford, Montana, in 1915. An adaptation of the 
once popular song Ocean Burial, words by W. H. Saunders, music by 
G. N. Allen. Credited by N. H. Thorpe, Songs of the Cowboys 
(p. 62), to H. demons, Deadwood, Dakota, 1872. 

79. I Want to Be a Cowboy. Text secured by Frances Francis 
of Cheyenne as sung in Wyoming about 1885. It is an adaptation 
of the religious song / Want to Be an Angel. 

80. Whoopee Ti Yi Yo, Git Along Little Dogies. Text from 
J. A. Lomax's Cowboy^s Songs, p. 87. 

81. Cheyenne Boys. Text as sung by Mrs. Jeanetta Gear of 
Junction, Wyoming, in 1914. This piece is widely current, with 
various local adaptations. Compare Mississippi Girls, Lomax, 
Cowboy Songs, p. 108, Arizona Boys and Girls, Thorpe, Songs of 
the Cowboys, p. 1. 

82. Breaking in a Tenderfoot. Text obtained from Frances 
Francis of Cheyenne in 1911. Thought by her to have been locally 



254 NOTES 

composed near Cheyenne. Compare The Horse Wrangler, Lomax, 
p. 136. N. H. Thorpe (p. 146) saya the author was Yank Hitson, 
Denver, Colorado, 1889. 

83. Starving to Death on a Government Claim. Text ob- 
tained by Vivian Cleaver Cleveland at Hot Springs, South Dakota, in 
1914. Compare Greer County, Lomax, p. 278, 

84. The Buffalo Skinners. Text from Lomax's Cowboy Songs, 
p. 158. 

85. Kinkaider*s Song. Text obtained from Miss Harriet Cook, 
of Gem, Nebraska, in 1915. A homesteader's song popular in the 
Nebraska sandhill regions. Sung at picnics, reunions, and the like 
to the tune of My Maryland. Moses P. Kinkaid was congressman 
of the Sixth Congressional District, 1903-1919. He was the intro- 
ducer of a bill for 640-acre homesteads known as the " Kinkaid Home- 
stead Law." 

86. Dakota Land. Text obtained from Lillian Gear Boswell of 
Wheatland, Wyoming, in 1914. This piece has for its model and is 
sung to the melody of the religious song Beulah Land. 

87. The Dreary Black Hills. Text obtained from Harry Gear 
of Junction, Wyoming, in 1914. 

88. Joe Bowers. This version was obtained in 1915 from Mr. 
Francis Withee of Stella, Nebraska, who heard it sung many times 
when a freighter in 1862-65 on the Denver-Nebraska City trail. It 
was a freighter's favorite. The song is supposed to be sung by a 
Missourian in California about 1849-51. It was in existence as early 
as 1854. 

89. In the Summer of Sixty. Text obtained from Frances 
Francis of Cheyenne, Wyoming, in 1911. 

90. The Dying Californian. Version secured by L. C. Wimberly 
as written in a manuscript book from Iowa in 1856. This song has 
wide currency, usually in somewhat shortened form. It is known 
also as "The Dying Brother's Farewell," "The Dying Brother's 
Request," and "The Brother's Request." 

91. The Pretty Mohea. Obtained by Mabel Conrad Sullivan 
from Mrs. John Leslie of Stanford, Montana, 1914. In many texts 
of this song the name " Mohea" passes into " Maumee," " The Pretty 
Maumee." 

92. (A) ELa-tie's Secret. Text as sung by Mrs. Mary F. Lindsay 
of Hebron, Nebraska, 1914. 

(B) The Hawthorn Tree. Text obtained by L. C. Wimberly 
from a Louisiana source. 

93. Mary and Willie. Text obtained by Mabel Conrad Sullivan 
from Mrs. John Leslie of Stanford, Montana, 1914. This piece seems 
to be the Annie and Willie known, according to Professor Shearin, in 
the Cumberland Mountains. The plot resembles that of The Prentice 



NOTES 255 

Boy (No. 31) and The Rich Young Farmer (No. 29). It may also be 
compared with that of The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington (Child, 
No. 105.) 

94. Kitty Wells. Text secured by Professor Reed Smith in 
1920 from a student at the University of South Carolina, J. B. Belk. 
Mr. Belk had it from his grandmother who heard it sung by slaves 
in Union County, South Carolina. A version sung by Mrs. Mary 
F. Lindsay of Hebron, Nebraska, is nearly identical but has an addi- 
tional stanza. 

95. Pastoral Elegy. Text obtained by Professor Edwin F. Piper, 
from a manuscript book belonging to Mrs. Lydia Hinshaw of Rich- 
land, Iowa. Mrs. Hinshaw says that it was sung by her mother 
who knew it when she came to Iowa from Ohio in 1840. " Coroden" 
is obviously from Corydon. 

96. The Courtship of Billy Grimes. Text of A. J. Leach of 
Oakdale, Antelope County, Nebraska, in 1914, who learned it as 
"sung before 1850 in Michigan." 

97. Fair Fanny Moore. Text obtained from Mrs. John Leslie 
of Stanford, Montana, 1915. Mr. Lomax's Texas text is nearly 
identical and the ballad is listed by H. M. Belden as known in Mis- 
souri. It still has wide currency. 

98. I Wish I Was Single Again. Text obtained from Lillian 
Gear Boswell when living at Junction, Wyoming, in 1914. According 
to H. M. Belden, the authorship of this popular piece is claimed by 
George Meeks, a ballad singer in Kansas. *' A Study in Contemporary 
Balladry," The Mid-West Quarterly, vol. I, p. 170. 1913-14. 

99. I'll Not Marry at All. Text obtained from Mabel Conrad 
Sullivan of Winnett, Montana, 1915. 

100. Rosen the Bow. Text obtained through Mabel Conrad 
Sullivan from Mrs. John Leslie of Stanford, Montana, 1915. Other 
texts, as that of J. A. Lomax in Cowboy Songs, spell the title Rosin 
the Beau. The song is piinted as an "Old English Song" in The 
Franklin Square Song Collection, No. 2, p. 48 (1884) under the name 
Rosin the Bow, which is probably the original spelling. 

101. EvALiNA. Text from Marie Gladys Hayden of Hobson, 
Montana, 1914. 

102. My Blue-Eyed Boy. From a manuscript book of songs 
from oral transcription in the possession of Sadie Thurman Hewitt 
of Brokenbow, Nebraska. Transcribed under the date of February, 
1905. 

103. The Old Gray Mule. Text obtained from Iowa sources by 
L. C. Wimberly of the University of Nebraska, 1917. 

104. (A) I Will Tell You of a Fellow. Text obtained from 
Northeastern Iowa by L. A. Quivey in 1914. The song is usually 
known as "Common Will." For other versions, see Broadwood and 




256 NOTES 



Maitland, English County Songs, p. 52, 1893, and The Journal of 
American Folk-Lore, vol. 28, 173, vol. 29, 171, etc. 

105. The Preacher's Legacy. From Mrs. Hinshaw's manuscript 
book, had by her from the singing of N. C. Johnson. Her copy is to 
be dated about 1879. Secured through E. F. Piper. 

106. The Spanish Cabineer. Text as sung on a ranch at Junc- 
tion, Wyoming, 1913. Secured by Lillian Gear Boswell. This 
version of the well-known college song The Spanish Cavalier is in- 
cluded because of the interest of the folk-etymological changes of the 
first stanza. 

107. The Two Drummers. Text obtained from Mrs. E. N. Har- 
din, of Missouri Valley, Iowa, in 1916, through L. C. Wimberiy. Of 
interest is the rapid action of its last part. The song is of compara- 
tively recent composition. It is by Edward B. Marks and was pub- 
lished by Joseph Western in 1896. As with After the Ball, Two Little 
Girls in Blue, and other song hits of the 1890's which still have vitality 
in out of the way places, all knowledge of its authorship and origin 
is lacking to its singers. 

108. The Quaker's Courtship. Text obtained from Iowa by L. 
C. Wimberiy, in 1916. For this song, see Newell, Games and Songs 
of American Children (1903), p. 94. It is an importation from 
England, like most of the following pieces. 

109. Dutchman, Dutchman, Won't You Marry Me? Text of 
Miss Edith Little, Falls City, Nebraska, in 1914. This is a variant 
of the well-known *' Soldier, Soldier, Won't You Marry Me?" See 
Newell, Games and Songs, p. 93. 

110. What Will You Give Me If I Get Up? Text of Misa 
Lucia Saxer of Mount Clare, Nebraska, 1914. This song is usually 
entitled Lazy Mary. It is sometimes used in a singing game. See 
Newell, Games and Songs, p. 96. 

111. Paper of Pins. Text secured from Louisiana by L. C. 
Wimberiy, in 1916. Compare Newell, Games and Songs, p. 52. 

112. (A) The Milkmaid. Text secured from the singing of 
children at Omaha by Elizabeth Gordon, 1915. 

(B) The Pretty Milkmaid. Text secured by Frances 
Botkin and Zora Schaupp from Mrs. Adna Dobson of Lincoln, 
Nebraska. 

113. Billy Boy. From the singing of Mrs. Ava Shellenbarger 
of Pawnee City, Nebraska, 1911. This favorite song is an Old World 
importation. See The Journal of American Folk-Lore, vol. 26, p. 357. 

114. Poor Robin. Text obtained from Nuckolls County, Ne- 
braska, by Miss Alice Hanthorne, in 1915. Other versions have the 
titles "Old Rover," "Poor Roger," "Poor Johnny," etc. This is 
an old song. Compare The Journal of American Folk-Lore, vol. 13, 
p. 230, 1900. It ia now mostly a motion song in children's games 



NOTES 257 

Compare also Alice Gomme, Dictionary of British Folk-Lore^ vol. II, 
p. 16, 1898. 

115. Babes in the Woods. Text from Harry Gear of Junction, 
Wyoming, 1913. This favorite song is still sung by grown-ups in 
the Kentucky mountains. Compare Bishop Percy's account of the 
Children in the WoodSt Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (1865). 

116. In Good Old Colony Times. Text from Mrs. Mary F. 
Lindsay of Hebron, Nebraska, in 1915. For the history of this song, 
see The Ballad of the Three in A. H. Tolman's "Some Songs Tradi- 
tional in the United States," Journal of American Folk-Lore, vol. 
29, p. 167 (1916) and G. L. Kittredge's annotation. 

117. Let's Go to the Woods. Text of Mrs. Mary F. Lindsay. 
Hebron, Nebraska, 1916. Sometimes known as Bobbin, Bobbin, 
Richard, and John, or The Wren Shooting, For this song, see the 
account of St. Stephen's Day customs in G. F. Northall's English 
Folk-Rhymes, 1892. It was printed as a nursery song in Gammer 
Gurton's Garland, 1783. 

118. I Bought Me a Wife. Text obtained by Elizabeth Gordon 
from Esther Knapp in Omaha, 1915. Miss Knapp's mother learned 
it in childhood from the singing of another child. For the final coup- 
let, compare a song in a comedy by W. Wager (about 1568), which 
runs— 

I laid my bridle upon the shelf; 

If you will anymore, sing it yourself. 

119. We'll All Go Down TO Rowseb's. Text from E. R. Harlan 
of Des Moines, Iowa, 1914. This piece is sometimes merely sung 
but usually it is a game song. 

120. Sweet Fields of Violo. Obtained by Mabel Conrad Sul- 
livan from Fern Sikes of Crete, Nebraska, in 1915. The singer should 
** end the piece with a good crow." This song has some relation to the 
college or glee club song, My Father Has Some Very Fine Ducks. 



INDEX 



INDEX 



Aged Indian, The. No. 53. 
Allen, Barbara. No. 3. 
Apprentice Boy, The. No. 22. 

Babes in the Woods, The. No. 

115. 
Babes, The Three. No. 7. 
Baggage Coach Ahead, In the. 

No. 58. 
Ballad of the Three, The. No. 

116. 
Bamboo Briars, The. No. 22. 
Banks of the Old Pedee, The. 

No. 45. 
Bass, Sam. No. 66. 
Battle of Point Pleasant, The. 

No. 40. 
Bayham, Lord. No. 14. 
Barbara Allen. No. 3. 
Bendall, The Death of. No. 65. 
Bess, My Bonny Black. No. 69. 
Betsy, Johnny and. No. 26. 
Billy Boy. No. 113. 
Billy Grimes* Courtship. No. 

96. 
Bird, James. No. 41. 
Black Hills, The Dreary. No. 

87. 
Blue-Eyed Boy, My. No. 102. 
Bond, Molly. No. 33. 
Bonny Black Bess. No. 69. 
Boston Burglar, The. No. 23. 
Bowers, Joe. No. 88. 
Bow, Rosen the. No. 100. 
Breaking in a Tenderfoot. No. 

82. 
Brother, The Cruel. No. 8. 
Boy, The Apprentice. No. 22. 
Boy, Billy. No. 113. 
Boy, The Butcher's. No. 24. 
Boy, The Farmer's. No. 28. 
Boy. My Blue-Eyed. No. 102. 



Boy, The Prentice. No. 31. 
Boys, Cheyenne. No. 81. 
Boys, Two Little. No. 18. 
Briars, The Bamboo. No. 22. 
Buffalo Skinners, The. No. 84. 
Burglar, The Boston. No. 23. 
Bury Me Not on the Lone Prai- 
rie. No. 77. 
Butcher's Boy, The. No. 24. 

Cabineer, The Spanish. No. 106. 
Californian, The Dying. No. 90. 
Calomel. No. 54. 
Captain Kidd. No. 72. 
Carpenter, The House. No. 17. 
Carol, The Cherry Tree. No. 

19. 
Casey Jones. No. 59. 
Charlotte, Young. No. 44. 
Charles Guiteau. No. 65. 
Charlestown. No. 23. 
Cherry Tree Carol, The. No. 

19. 
Cheyenne Boys, The. No. 81. 
Children's Song. No. 7. 
Claim, The Little Old Sod 

Shanty on My. No. 74. 
Colony Times, In Good Old. 

No. 116. 
Common Will. No. 104. 
Constant Farmer's Son, The. 

No. 32. 
Coolen Bawn, My. No. 38. 
Corn, The Man Who Wouldn't 

Hoe. No. 46. 
Courtship of Billy Grimes, The. 

No. 96. 
Courtship, The Quaker's. No. 

108. 
Courtship, William Reilly's. 

No. 38. 
Cowboy, The Dying. No. 77. 



261 



262 



INDEX 



Cowboy, I Want To Be a. No. 

79. 
Cowboy Song. No. 75. 
Creole Girl, The. No. 55. 
Cruel Brother, The. No. 8. 

Dagger, The Silver. No. 52. 
Dakota Land. No. 86. 
Dandoo. No. 6. 
Death of BendaU, The. No. 65. 
Death of Garfield. No. 65. 
Death of a Romish Lady, The. 

No. 25. 
Donahoo, Jack. No. 71. 
Dreary Black HHls, The. No. 

87. 
Drowsy Sleeper, The. No. 21. 
Drummers, The Two. No. 107. 
Dutchman, Dutchman, Won't 

You Marry Me? No. 109. 
Dying Calif ornian, The. No. 

90. 
Dying Cowboy, The. No. 77. 

Edward. No. 9. 

Elgin, The Wreck of the Lady. 

No. 60. 
Elegy, Pastoral. No. 95. 
EvaUna. No. 101. 

False Knight, The. No. 20. 
Fair Fanny Moore. No. 97. 
Farmer's Boy, The. No. 28. 
Farmer, The Rich Young. No. 

29. 
Fatal Wedding, The. No. 63. 
Father Grumble. No. 36. 
Fawkes, Guy. No. 37. 
Fields of Violo, The. No. 120. 
Fire, The Milwaukee. No. 62. 
Flood, The Jamestown. No. 61. 
Fuller and Warren. No. 49. 

Gambler, The. No. 57. 
Garfield, The Death of. No. 65. 



Girl, The Creole, No. 55. 
Goins, Poor. No. 50. 
Government Claim, Starving 

Death on a. No. 83. 
Gray, The Blue and the. ^ 

56. 
Gray Mare, My Father's. No. 

34. 
Gray Mule, The Old. No. 103. 
Groves, Little Matthy. No. 15. 
Grumble, Father. No. 36. 
Guiteau, Charles. No. 65. 
Guy Fawkes. No. 37. 

Hangman's Song, The. No. 13. 
Hawthorne Tree, The. No. 92- 
Hills, The Dreary Black. No- 

87. 
Hoe Corn, The Man That 

Wouldn't. No. 46. 
Horse- Wrangler, The. No. 82. 
House Carpenter, The. No. 17. 

I Bought Me a Wife. No. 118. 
I'll Not Marry at All. No. 99. 
Indian, The Aged. No. 53. 
In Good Old Colony Times. No. 

116. 
In the Baggage Coach Ahead. 

No. 58. 
In Springfield Mountain. No. 

42. 
In the Summer of Sixty. No. 

89. 
I Want to Be a Cowboy. No. 79. 
I Will TeU You of a FeUow. 

No. 104. 
I Wish I Was Single Again. No. 

98. 

Jack Donahoo. No. 71. 
Jack Williams. No. 67, 
James Bird. No. 41. 
James, Jesse. No. 64. 
Jamestown Flood, The. No. 61. 



INDEX 



263 



Jealous Lover, The. No. 43. 
Jesse James. No. 64. 
Jewish Lady, The. No. 5. 
Jew Lady, The. No. 5. 
Jimmy Randolph. No. 1. 
Johnny and Betsy. No. 26. 
Johnny Randall. No. 1. 
Johnny Sands. No. 48. 
Jones, Casey. No. 59. 

Katie's Secret. No. 92. 
Kidd, Captain. No. 72. 
Kinkaider's Song, The. No. 85. 
Kitty Wells. No. 94. 
Knight, The False. No. 20. 

Lazy Mary. No. 110. 
Lady Elgin, The. No. 60. 
Lady, The Jewish. No. 5. 
Lady, The Jew. No. 5. 
Lady, The Death of the Romish. 

No. 25. 
Land, Dakota. No. 86. 
Lawyer, Turpin and the. No. 

70. 
Legacy, The Preacher's. No. 

105. 
Let's Go to the Woods. No. 

117. 
Little Matthy Groves. No. 15. 
Little Old Sod Shanty on My 

Claim, The. No. 74. 
Lone Prairie, The. No. 78. 
Lord Bayham. No. 14. 
Lorella, Poor. No. 43. 
Lord Thomas. No. 12. 
Lovel, Lord. No. 2. 
Lover, The Jealous. No. 43. 
Lover, Lord. No. 2. 
Lover's Return, The. No. 30. 
Lowlands Low, The. No. 10. 

Man That Wouldn't Hoe Corn, 
The. No. 46. 



Mare, My Father's Gray. No. 

34. 
Mary, Lazy. No. 110. 
Mary and Willie. No. 21. 
Mary and Willie. No. 93. 
Mary o' the Wild Moor. No. 35. 
Matthy Groves, Little. No. 15. 
McFee, Young. No. 68. 
Milkmaid, The. No. 112. 
Milwaukee Fire, The. No. 62. 
Mohea, The Pretty. No. 91. 
Molly Bond. No. 33. 
Moore, Fair Fannie. No. 97. 
My Blue-Eyed Boy. No. 102. 
My Bonny Black Bess. No. 69. 
My Father's Gray Mare. No. 

34. 
Mule, The Old Gray. No. 103. 

North Countree, The Old Man 
of the. No. 4. 

O Bury Me Not on the Lone 

Prairie. No. 78. 
O Johnny Dear, Why Did You 

Go? No. 42. 
Old Chisholm Trail, The. No. 

76. 
Old Gray Mule, The. No. 103. 
Old Man of the North Countree, 

The. No. 4. 
Old Pedee, On the Banks of the. 

No. 45. 
Old Shawnee, The. No. 45. 
Omie, Poor. No. 51. 

Paper of Pins, A. No. 111. 
Pastoral Elegy. No. 95. 
Pedee, On the Banks of the Old. 

No. 45. 
Pins, A Paper of. No. 111. 
Point Pleasant, The Battle of. 

No. 40. 
Polly, Wicked. No. 47. 



264 



INDEX 



Ponchartrain, The Lakes of. 

No. 55. 
Poor Goins. No. 50. 
Poor Lorella. No. 43. 
Poor Omie. No. 51. 
Poor Robin. No. 114. 
Preacher's Legacy, The. No. 

105. 
Prentice Boy, The. No. 31. 

Quaker's Courtship, The. No. 
108. 

Rangers, The Texas. No. 73. 
Randall, Johnny. No. 1. 
Randolph, Jimmy. No. 1. 
Return, The Lover's. No. 30. 
Rich Young Farmer, The. No. 

29. 
Robin, Bobin, Richard, and 

John. No. 117. 
Robin, Poor. No. 114. 
Romish Lady, The Death of a. 

No. 25. 
Rosen the Bow. No. 100. 
Rowser's, We'll All Go Down to. 

No. 119. 

Sam Bass. No. 66. 
Sailor Boys, The Three. No. 11. 
Sands, Johnny. No. 48. 
Secret, Katie's. No. 92. 
Shawnee, On the Banks of the 

Old. No. 45. 
Silver Dagger, The. No. 52. 
Sisters, The Two. No. 4. 
Sixty, In the Summer of. No. 

89. 
Skinners, The Buffalo. No. 84. 
Sleeper, The Drowsy. No. 21. 
Sod Shanty, The Little Old. No. 

74. 
Soldier, The. No. 27. 
Song, The Children's. No. 7. 



Song, The Cowboy's. No. 74. 
Song, The Hangman's. No. 13. 
Song, The Kinkaider's. No. 85. 
Son, The Constant Farmer's. 

No. 32. 
Spanish Cabineer, The. No. 

104. 
Springfield Mountain. No. 42. 
Starving to Death on a Govem<A| 

ment Claim. No. 83. ■ 

Summer of Sixty, In the. No. 

89. 
Sweet Fields of Violo. No. 120. 
Sweet William. No. 16. 

Tavern in the Town, There's a. 

No. 24. 
Tenderfoot, Breaking in a. No. 

82. 
Texas Rangers, The. No. 73. 
The Aged Indian. No. 53. 
The Apprentice Boy. No. 22. 
The Babes in the Wood. No. 

115. 
The Baggage Coach Ahead. No. 

58. 
The Bamboo Briars. No. 22. 
The Banks of the Old Pedee. 

No. 45. 
The Battle of Point Pleasant. 

No. 40. 
The Blue and the Gray. No. 

56. 
The Blue-Eyed Boy. No. 102. 
The Boston Burglar. No. 24. 
The Buffalo Skinners. No. 84. 
The Butcher's Boy. No. 24. 
The Cherry Tree Carol. No. 19. 
The Constant Farmer's Son. 

No. 32. 
The Courtship of Billy Grimes. 

No. 96. 
The Cruel Brother. No. 8. 
The Death of Bendall. No. 65. 
The Death of Garfield. No. 65. 



INDEX 



265 



The Death of a Romish Lady. 

No. 25. 
The Dreary Black Hills. No, 

87. 
The Drowsy Sleeper. No. 21. 
The Dying Calif ornian. No. 90. 
The Dying Cowboy. No. 77. 
The False Knight. No. 21. 
The Farmer's Boy. No. 29. 
The Fatal Wedding. No. 63. 
The Gambler. No. 57. 
The Hangman's Song. No. 13. 
The Hawthorn Tree. No. 92. 
The Horse Wrangler. No. 82. 
The House Carpenter. No. 17. 
The Jamestown Flood. No. 61. 
The Jealous Lover. No. 43. 
The Jewish Lady. No. 5. 
The Jew Lady. No. 5. 
The Kinkaider's Song. No. 85. 
The Lady Elgin. No. 60. 
The Lakes of Ponchartrain. No. 

65. 
The Lazy Man. No. 46. 
The Little Old Sod Shanty. No. 

74. 
The Lone Prauie. No. 78. 
The Lover's Return. No. 30. 
The Lowlands Low. No. 10. 
The Man That Wouldn't Hoe 

Corn. No. 46. 
The Milkmaid. No. 112. 
The Milwaukee Fire. No. 62. 
The Old Chisholm Trail. No. 

76. 
The Old Gray Mule. No. 103. 
The Old Man in the North Coun- 

tree. No. 4. 
The Preacher's Legacy. No. 

105. 
The Prentice Boy. No. 31. 
The Pretty Milkmaid. No. 112. 
The Pretty Mohea. No. 91. 
The Quaker's Courtship. No. 

108. 



The Rich Young Farmer. No. 

30. 
The Silver Dagger. No. 52. 
The Spanish Cabineer. No. 106. 
The Soldier. No. 27. 
The Sweet Fields of Violo. No. 

120. 
The Texas Rangers. No. 73. 
The Three Babes. No. 7. 
The Three, Ballad of the. No. 

No. 116. 
The Three Sailor Boys. No. 11. 
The Two Dnmimers. No. 107. 
The Two Sisters. No. 4. 
The Weeping Willow. No. 43. 
The Wife Wrapt in Wether'a 

Skin. No. 6. 
The Wreck of the Lady Elgin. 

No. 60. 
The Wren Shooting. No. 117. 
There is a Tavern in the Town. 

No. 24. 
Thomas, Lord. No. 12. 
Three, Ballad of the. No. 116. 
Three Babes, The. No. 7. 
Three Sailor Boys, The. No. 11. 
TraU, The Old Chisholm. No. 

76. 
Tree, The Hawthorn. No. 92. 
Two Little Boys. No. 18. 
Two Drummers, The. No. 107. 
Two Sisters, The. No. 4. 
Turpin and the Lawyer. No. 70. 

Uncle Tohido. No. 53. 

Violo, Sweet Fields of. No. 120. 

Warren, Fuller and. No. 49. 
Wedding, The Fatal. No. 63. 
Weeping Willow, The. No. 43. 
We'll All Go Down to Rowser's. 

No. 119. 
Wells, Kitty. No. 94. 



266 



INDEX 



Wether's Skin, The Wife Wrapt 

In. No. 6. 
What Will You Give Me If I 

Get Up? No. 110. 
Whoopee Ti Yi Yo, Git Along 

Little Dogies. No. 80. 
Wicked Polly. No. 47. 
Wife, I Bought Me a. No. 118. 
Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin, 

The. No. 6. 
Wild Moor, Mary o' the. No. 

35. 
Will, Common. No. 104. 
Williams, Jack. No. 67. 
Willie, Mary and. No. 21. 
WiUie, Mary and. No. 93. 



William Reilly's Courtship. No. 

38. 
William, Sweet. No. 16. 
Willow, The Weepmg. No. 43. 
W^reck of the Lady Elgin, The. 

No. 60. 
Woods, The Babes in the. No. 

115. 
Woods, Let*s Go to the. No. 

117. 
Woodville Moimd. No. 42. 
Wren Shooting, The. No. 117. 



Young Charlotte. No. 44. 
Young McFee. No. 68. 



ii 



THE MODERN 
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A WEEK ON THE CONCORD AND 

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"... Here was a man who stood with his head in the clouds, 
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**Good comedies," Meredith tells us, "are such rare productions 
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m 

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ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON'S 
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ration and the best of his humor. In the large, it reflects the strug- 
gle between spiritual and moral ideals which was constantly going on 
a Meredith's mind and which ends in the triumph of the spirit of 
acrifice. 

THE MASTER OF BALLANTRAE 

By Robert Louis Stevenson 

With an Introduction by 
H. S. CANBY 

Formerly Professor of English Literature at Yale University, Mid 
present editor of the New York Evening Post Literary Review 

Here is one of the most absorbing of Stevenson's romances, full of 
he spice of adventure and exciting incident, the thrill of danger and 
he chill of fear; it is, beside, a powerful and subtle study of Scotch 
haracter of different types, and brings into being one of the most 
mazing of all the dramatis personse of romantic fiction. 

POEMS AND PLAYS 
By Robert Browning 

Selected with an Introduction and Notes by 
HEWLETTE ELWELL JOYCE 

Assistant Professor of English in Dartmouth College 

A volume intended for the student or less-advanced reader of 
Irowning who does not require a complete edition. The introduction 
iggests an approach to Browning, points out such diflSculties as often 
erplex one who reads Browning for the first time, and states simply 

few of the poet's fundamental ideas. 



TEE MODERN STUDENT'S LIBRARY 



RUSKIN'S 
SELECTIONS AND ESSAYS 

With an Introduction by 
FREDERICK WILLIAM ROE 

Assistant Professor of English at University of Wisconsin 



J 



"Ruskin," said John Stuart Mill, "was one of the few men 
Europe who seemed to draw what he said from a source within hi 
self." Carlyle delighted in the "fierce lightning bolts" that Rusl 
was "copiously and desperately pouring into the black world 
anarchy all around him." 

The present volume, by its wide selection from Ruskin's writin 
y_ aflFords an unusual insight into this remarkable man*s interests a 
character. 



0^ 

oo 



THE SCARLET LETTER 
By Nathaniel Hawthorne 

With an Introduction by 
STUART P. SHERMAN 

Professor of English at University of Illinois 

** *The Scarlet Letter' appears to be as safe from competitt 
as * Pilgrim's Progress' or * Robinson Crusoe.' It is recognized 
the classical treatment of its particular theme. Its symbols a 
scenes of guilt and penitence — the red letter on the breast of Hesi 
Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale on the scaffold — have fixed themseh 
in the memory of men like the figure of Crusoe bending over t 
footprints in the sand, and have become a part of the common sto 
of images like Christian facing the lions in the way. 



CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SON 

PUBLISHERS NEW YORK 






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